Empting the recycle bin..

[dumpedvs]

Hey guys,
random question but ive always wondered.. When you delete files etc on your computer/ phone etc..
where does it go? Like when you empty you recycle bin?

Thanks, Shep

[S.T.K.E]

When you delete something (using the recycle bin or pressing Shift+Delete on your keyboard), it does a very simple encryption which causes the file's contents to become unlinked and scrambled. The file header (which contains info on the links) is deleted, and the contents of the file is allowed to be overwritten by new data.

Whenever a file is stored on a hard disk, it's not necessarily all stored together - it can be split into X number of pieces and stored randomly wherever there happens to be space available to store it.

Each fragment is tagged as being linked. When you open a file the OS reads the first part, reads all the others and then rewrites the entire lot on a clear space of hard drive which is what "opens" whenever you open a file.

Deleting it causes the links to disappear, but some data clusters can still remain. This makes it possible for recovery software to decrypt the file and make it usable again, provided that the Windows OS hasn't written new data over it.

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[edals]

Hey mate.

It goes no where, it just frees the space from where the data was, so when its deleted, other files can now over write where the data was. If you want to delete something, you have the zero out the data, not sure how its done on a PC but on macs you have secure empty trash and zeros the data away.

STKE beat me lol

[S.T.K.E]

Lol. I always get clients and customers as the same question. I stole that info of yahoo or some shit like that and keep it handy.

[edals]

Always hard to answer the question what would cause data corruption lol. have a list at work for that lol

[S.T.K.E]

My standard response is "how longs a piece of string"

[wraith]

Love the term "zero the hard drive" Umm 0 is still information to a computer. It's called binary which consist of 1's and 0's. OK I'm done.

[dumpedvs]

Ta for the info, confusing but I get it

[edals]

Here Wraith. I know your done but still says ZERO OUT


By at 2010-12-04

[wraith]

Fine. OK there is 2 meanings to the term zero out. One (which is the more common definition) is to fill the the hard disk with 0's which a lot of people think wipes all data so that there is now nothing but free space which is not the case as the computer sees both 1 and 0 as data (1 and 0 being binary. The base level computer language). The other term for "zeroing out" is writing 0's across the hard drive which is obviously what you want when your wiping a hard disk with potentially sensitive information as the previous data will now be replaced by the new data and thus harder to extract. The first definition is the one I was talking about in my previous post.

[edals]

Dont have to explain to me mate been a Apple tech for 5 Years ;-) Just stirring

[wraith]

Just answering for any one else who doesn't understand the fundamentals behind zeroing a hard drive