Installation of XP; is erase parition as format or wipe?

Captain Kirk

Captain Kirk

Member
Hello Everybody,

Installation of XP; is erase parition as format or wipe?

When you insert XP and it goes to the blue screen to start the setup process, it asks you what partition that you'd like to setup Windows on;)

And there is also the option to "Delete Partition":rolleyes: If you "Delete Partition", does this permanently erase the data from your hd as a wipe or killdisk; or is it the same as a format instead?:eek:
 
The XP install disk allows you to delete the existing partitions and format them. However, its always possible to recover data from formatted partitions. The only true way to wipe a drive is to use killdisk or dban.
 
That's what I thought!!!!!!!!!!

But when after selecting the "Delete Partition" option in the Windows setup process, I have ran 3 Recovery programs with 4 7 hour failed runs! I lost 20 Gigs of data. No files could be found to recover!!!!!!!!!

As far as I know, when you create a partition it formats your hd. But data can still be recovered. Therefore, the XP "Delete Partition" option in the Windows setup process is the same as a killdisk complete data wipe!!!!!!!!

P.s.
The question on my threads page was not highlighted, so I assumed that no one had replied. I accidently clicked on it and found out that this was not the case. I don't understand what the highlighted ones mean.

QUESTION
How do I know if I got a reply on a thread?
 
Captain Kirk said:
That's what I thought!!!!!!!!!!

But when after selecting the "Delete Partition" option in the Windows setup process, I have ran 3 Recovery programs with 4 7 hour failed runs! I lost 20 Gigs of data. No files could be found to recover!!!!!!!!!

As far as I know, when you create a partition it formats your hd. But data can still be recovered. Therefore, the XP "Delete Partition" option in the Windows setup process is the same as a killdisk complete data wipe!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

No. It's nowhere near as secure as Killdisk. It simply deletes the partition from the drive table. I'm sure if you used a more advanced recovery program you might recover something, but most of the time you're not lucky enough to.
 
So you are saying that I was not lucky enough?

Here are the programs that I used:

Gparted Recovery Live CD
Smart Partition Recovery
Active Partition Recovery Enterprise v6
 
DANG!!!!!!!

Do you think these recovery programs that I meantioned would have been GOOD enough to recover the lost data? [Because you said something about an "Advanced Recovery Program". So would those on my list be considered an "Advanced Recovery Program"?
 
Well the issue I see is you tried to recover the partition after it had already been formatted. You can only recover a partition if the partition has only been deleted and nothing on the drive has been formatted. That is your main problem.
 
But when you delete/create a partition -- THIS formats it. It is part of the "process" in the delete/create a partition procedure; it does it for you!
 
Unless you actually format it, all you're doing is deleting the partition in the table. So during setup, you would format it. However, if you simply delete the partition, you can recover it without an issue.
 
Even if you let xp format your entire harddrive, it will be recoverable. Xp only overwrites a small part of the drive during a quick/full format.
 
Larsch,

What about if you delete/create a partition AND then do the full [not quick] format, would this be enough to make any data COMPLETELY unrecoverable?
 
Okay, let me rephrase this in a better question:

QUESTION
[If you delete/create partition, followed by a format entire hd]:
Can the data on the hd be recovered at this point?

What about if you format 4 times? Can the data on the hd be recovered at this point?

So you are saying that Vista and W7 do a "Quick Format"?

Capain Kirk
 
Captain Kirk said:
QUESTION
[If you delete/create partition, followed by a format entire hd]:
Can the data on the hd be recovered at this point?
Click to expand...
The chances of getting the data back are 'slim', you may get it back, you may not.

What about if you format 4 times? Can the data on the hd be recovered at this point?
Click to expand...
Again, the chances are slim. You may get it back, but probably not.

So you are saying that Vista and W7 do a "Quick Format"?
Click to expand...
Yes.
 
delete/create partition, format/quick format with xp. The same very small area of your harddrive is affected. No matter how many times you do it, most of the data on the harddrive will be unaffected.

Full format with vista or win 7 and everyting will be gone.
 
You attempted to recover the data that had been deleted, did you try to recover to the same drive or a different drive?

If the same drive the recovered data will have overwritten the data you was trying to recover and is gone forever.

When recovering data you must always use a drive that has enough space on it for the data, and is independent of the original drive .A seperate partion on the same drive is acceptabe, if the partition was created before the original data was lost.
Terry
 
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