Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - Hardware/Software - Something I always wondered....
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HyperLamer
Posts: 1226/8210 |
Windows marks the file as deleted. The space occupied by the file is now considered empty, so when Windows needs space to put a new file, it will overwrite that file's data (if that so happens to be the place it finds to put the new data). This means a freshly-deleted file is still on the disk, Windows just ignores it and eventually it gets overwritten.
BTW: Hard disks work just like floppies, with magnets. |
Emptyeye
Posts: 511/2273 |
NSNick has it right.
More specifically, data basically consists of three-parts: A header, the actual file data, and a pointer (Either to another file or, more likely, the next part of the same file). When you Empty the Recycle Bin, what you're doing is deleting the pointers that reference that file.
Incidentally, when you format the hard drive, all you're doing is deleting ALL the pointers, not necessarily the data itself (As I recall, the standard industry practice is to format the hard drive, then rewrite the whole thing with garbage. Repeat several times).
Of course, the link probably explains all this, but I didn't read it.  |
neotransotaku
Posts: 979/4016 |
Undelete works to a certain extent...but some files are just totally irrecoverable even if you just recently deleted them.
As for HDs, HDs have always run on magnetic media since it was reasoned that tapes (remember them) are more effecient if you placed them on a circular disc. Anyways, depending on the OS, when you delete a file, what you actually do is remove any trace of it from the file system. But I guess NSNick's link explained that. |
Prier
Posts: 1984/8392 |
Heads and platters...duh...I didn't know what they were called or how they worked...I'd seen pictures but that was about it. |
NSNick
Posts: 603/3875 |
Heh, while looking for information to verify how exactly I thought a hard drive works, I found this:
When you delete files from your computer and after you empty it out of the Recycle Bin, where exactly does it go?
And Hiryuu, here's how a hard-disk works. |
Prier
Posts: 1981/8392 |
Originally posted by NSNick
Actually, I believe the data is still there until written over, the operating system just doesn't keep track of it anymore. I could be totally wrong, but I think that's how it goes. Also, hard drives don't have lasers. (Double) Also, this should probably go in Hardware/Software, so I'll toss it over there.
That would explain the UNDELETE being able to work and why McAfee shredder doing what it does. Didn't know about the lasers, but then I don't really know the internal components of a hard drive to begin with...I just assumed it was an optical laser / needle. |
NSNick
Posts: 602/3875 |
Actually, I believe the data is still there until written over, the operating system just doesn't keep track of it anymore. I could be totally wrong, but I think that's how it goes. Also, hard drives don't have lasers. (Double) Also, this should probably go in Hardware/Software, so I'll toss it over there. |
Lilmario
Posts: 82/367 |
Wow, didn't know it was so complicated 
I do NOT want to make computers when I'm older.... |
Prier
Posts: 1975/8392 |
Think he meant on an actual comp:
[20:57] Hiryuu: where does 'it' go...it being?
[20:57] Apple: The stuff in the recycling Bin
[20:57] Hiryuu: gets deleted
[20:57] Apple: Yeah. How?
[20:58] Hiryuu: gets erased off the drive, that's how, it's probably possible to retrieve the stuff with some UNDELETE type of program...unless you have McAfee shredder and get rid of it that way...then it really doesn't come back
[20:59] Apple: I know it gets deleted but wouldn't it still actually be there? Theres nothing to remove it from the drive...
[21:00] Hiryuu: no, the drive laser takes care of that
[21:00] Apple: So it overwrites the file with all zeros making it nothing?
[21:01] Hiryuu: well, that could be one way of describing it, if you're term it with low-level formatting
[21:01] Hiryuu: since that's what a low-level format does to a drive...write 0s to the entire thing
At least that's what I got out of it. |
Apple
Posts: 122/594 |
I meant the Recycling Bin on windows... |
kornfan
Posts: 126/622 |
When you empty the trash can on the board where I'm an admin, s7.invisionfree.com/SimBattling_Plus, It get's deleted and sent to the main server, and they dispose of it as such. Just like when you mod a post. |
Apple
Posts: 121/594 |
When you empty the recycling bin... Where does it go? |
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