You may think that the file is gone for good when you delete it from your computer. However, the truth is more complicated than that. A deleted file does not really disappear immediately from your hard drive; it actually stays there until new data fills up the space it previously occupied. This process might be hard to understand for people who do not know much about how computers handle files but in this article we will discuss what happens to deleted files, how to recover them and why they might still be on your device.
What Happens When You Delete A File?
It’s not as easy as it seems to delete a file. When you send a file to the Trash or Recycle Bin, it is not erased from your hard drive right away. Instead it is moved to a temporary storage place and stays there until you decide to empty the bin. But, the file’s data stays on the hard drive even after that bin is emptied; it is marked as free space that can be used by other files but not actually erased. When you delete a file, you remove its record from the file system. The file system is like a directory that keeps track of all the files on your computer. The operating system will no longer know where the file is, but the data inside will still be there. This is why it is often possible to recover deleted files with special software, as long as that space has not been overwritten by another file.
You can think of it as a book with an index. You can easily find a section when you refer to the index and then move to the correct page. If the reference you are looking for is removed from the index, you then have to manually examine the entire book to find what you are looking for.
When you delete a file from y our computer it is just removing the location from the index and the actual file still exists on the computer (until overwritten).
To manage data successfully and safely, you need to understand this process. For instance, deleting private information is not enough if you want to be sure it is gone for good. If you want to delete the information on your hard drive safely, you may need to use extra tools. Next, we will explore how to recover deleted files and the importance of backup.
How Can I Get Back Deleted Files?
To recover deleted files, you need specialised software that can scan your hard drive for data that has been marked as available but has not yet been over written. This method might work if the file was recently deleted and the space it took up has not been filled with new data.
How Software for Recovery Works
Recovery software works by scanning the hard drive for areas that have data in them but are not currently linked to any file in the file system. It then tries to rebuild the file by putting these parts back together. How well this process works will depend on how quickly the recovery is attempted and whether all or parts of the sections have been written over.
What File Recovery Can’t Do
File recovery works sometimes, but not all the time. It is much harder or even impossible to recover a removed file if the space it took up has been overwritten. It is also possible for the quality of the recovered file to vary, with some files being fully recoverable and others only partly.
Why Backups Are Important
As file recovery is not always possible, it is important to regularly backup your data. This ensures that you can still access a file through your backups even if you delete it and can not recover it. We will discuss more about how different devices handle deleted data and the concept of “secure deletion” in the next section.
What Does Happen On Different Devices?
Deleted files are handled in a few different ways by different types of systems. Windows devices place deleted files in the “Recycle Bin” and MacOS devices have the “Trash” folder. Android phones have a similar folder called “Recently Deleted”. Photos and movies deleted from an iPhone are kept in the “Recently Deleted” album in the Photos app for 30 days before being deleted for good.
Secure Deletion
Secure deletion does more than just delete a file from the file system; it also writes over the space it took up to make sure the data cannot be retrieved. This is especially important if you want to make sure that all of your private data is gone.
SSDs vs. HDDs
How lost files are dealt with depends on the type of storage device used. Solid-State Drives (SSDs) handle deleted data more efficiently with a method called TRIM. This can make recovery harder than with traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDDs). To keep your information safe on multiple devices, you need to know about these differences. In the next section, we will discuss how to ensure that deleted files are really gone and what you can do to keep your data safe.
How to Make Sure Files Are Really Deleted
There is more to do than just deleting the file and leaving it in the “recycle bin” or “trash” to make sure they are really gone. This is especially important if you want to keep private data safe from unauthorised access. You can safely delete files with software that is designed for that purpose. These tools delete files and then overwrite the space they filled several times, making it almost impossible to recover the data. In order to keep private data safe, this step is very important and is called “secure deletion.” Good data management practices can help keep your data safe and secure in addition to secure deletion. Some examples are making regular backups and encrypting your data.
Take Charge of Your Information
To sum up, if you want to keep your digital data safe, you need to know where deleted files go and how to recover them. You can keep your information safe from unauthorised access by managing your data and backing it up regularly. If you need help to safely delete sensitive files or have questions about how to handle your data, please contact us.