[LeJEan]

Last weekend I lost all the raw photos I took because I was not aware that my computer had changed my drive letters. Lightroom imported the files right back onto the compact flash card. When I was done editing I formated my card thus getting rid of everything. Be sure to know where you are putting your files because lightroom is able to put them anywhere.

[Keith Skutt]

As long as you do not write over the card the files can be recovered. The format only erases the directory of the file locations. The actual data is still present on the card unless you performed something like a DOD format that writes zeroes to each memory location on the card.