They don’t need special tools, even a single slow format means all regular recovery software is useless and you need data recovery experts. Special tools overwrite multiple times with random data, making it pretty much impossible to recover data even for professionals.
What you are saying is true for quick format only.
Had a business partner with whom I met up face to face regularly. He was supposed to do the sales and help getting a market fit due to his experience and contacts in the industry.
I designed and built the app, set up the server and infrastructure, bought the domains etc. But despite his father owning a large company in that industry, he couldn’t even get them to use it for free. Not because the app didnt work, we tested it and everything worked fine. It was even in use at his fathers company for a short while as we temporarily had a customer relationship manager who pushed for it. Once she left, it all fell apart and my partner did basically nothing but talk out of his ass.
I ended up scrapping the thing and focusing on an industry where I have experience and contacts, but the lesson is: face to face contact doesn’t do shit if your partner isn’t willing to get the job done (he seems to have been excited at creating something but far less excited with actually running it).
Yes, because someone with the skills and (physical) tools can still access data on a drive after a slow format. As I also mentioned. But your 08/15 recovery software wont be able to do anything with a slow formatted drive.