Data recovery after install

[bumbleman123]

Hi,

Basically, what I'm wondering is if the reformat that ubuntu performs when installing is a full (low level) format or a quick (high level) format?

Thanks in advance for your help

[Mark Phelps]

Low-level formats require special software. That is NOT what Ubuntu does. It only does the typical filesystem reformats, which means basically, that it erases the contents of the partition table -- but in reality, leaves the actual data intact. That's how data recovery apps work -- they look for files and directories that are still intact.