"Erased" files still there?

I heard something many years ago concerning erasing files from a floppy, and I'm wondering if it's true, and if it is, will there be any way to recover "lost" files?

Anyway, I heard, or was told (I'm not 100% sure which since its been quite a few years) that when you erase info from a floppy, the information isn't really "gone," it's just had something (sorry to be fuzzy here) added to it to make it look like the information is gone? Is there any truth to that, or were legs just being pulled?

Now, if it is true, is there any way to "recover" what was lost? I had to have some work done on my computer, so I needed to back up a ton of files. I previously had this filed saved, albeit in a less than up to date form. Well, to make a long story short, instead of saving it, or rewriting it, I erased it, thus losing the work of an important project, and unfortunately, the computer work pretty much wiped my computer clean (thus the need to back up everything).

So please, oh please oh please tell me (don't mean to beg here hehehe) that the info isn't gone for good. Granted, I can start over, but I'm looking at about 2 1/2 months worth of work down the drain (and that much more ahead of me if I do have to start over), if it truly is gone.

Oh, one more thing before I go, and I don't know if it would have any bearing or not as to if the info could somehow be found. I used a 100MB zip disk instead of a regular 144kb floppy.

As always, any help or info will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, and God Bless!!!

Adam