The FORMAT command has, since at least 1995, not really wiped the drive. It simply wipes the FAT and then performs a cluster-by-cluster read/write test to pick up bad sectors. That's why it's relatively easy for a program like Lost & Found to recover from a botched FDISK and FORMAT. Actually, FORMAT /Q does exactly the same thing as FORMAT, only without the bad sector test. It's just that FORMAT does not allow the /Q switch on a fresh partition.
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