> 'Safe' here obviously means including transactional integrity, so I feel you're criticising the wrong thing.

Good news, they're not criticizing the word "safe", they're criticizing the word "gone".

> That's so nitpicky it has lesser nitpicks living upon it.

It says "100% gone" when you pull the plug.

Pointing out that is merely queued for deletion is a big deal, not a nitpick.

> Pointing out that is merely queued for deletion...

ok, so before deletion occurs, 1) how are you going to get it back and 2) how do you know how much you have/haven't lost (that transactional integrity I mentioned)?

"capture the table files before starting the database server again. And then pay through the nose for a data recovery specialist."

How much? Probably most of it. The data is not safe. But it's also not gone.

I understand what you're saying and I think we're both right, except that we're looking from different angles: you're thinking of it as bits on a disc and I'm looking at it as if I were running my business on that database.

Edit: put another way, you: "Yep, I think we can get something back". Me: "aaaaaaaaaaaargh! mah payroll!"

Suggesting you pay a lot of money for data recovery is also treating it as important business data.

In this scenario you already screwed up badly but you can salvage a lot. Very different from there being no hope.