When Deleting Files on Your Computer Where does it Go?
When you first delete a file, it will be moved to the Recycle Bin, Trash, or something similar on your computer, depending on your operating system. When something is sent to the Recycle Bin or Trash, the icon changes to indicate that it contains files and if needed allows you to recover deleted files.
Then, when you empty the Recycle Bin or Trash, the icon changes back to an empty trash can and the files are deleted.
Do files in the Recycle Bin occupy disk space?
Yes. Since files are not marked for deletion, they still occupy disk space when stored in the Recycle Bin. Once freed up, that disk space is recovered.
After the file is deleted
When the computer deletes a file or the Recycle Bin is emptied, it deletes the reference to the file on the hard drive. Once the file header, or reference, is removed, the computer can no longer view the file. The space the file used is no longer reserved for that file, and any new files can be saved in that location.
What does this mean? The file is no longer readable by the computer. However, the file remains on the hard drive until another file or part of a file is saved to the same location.
Since the file is technically there, it may be possible to recover using data recovery software to rebuild the file header, allowing the computer to view the file again. This software only works if no other files or data are stored on top of the deleted files.
Why doesn't the computer delete the files?
It's faster for the computer to delete a reference to a file than it is to instruct the hard drive to overwrite the file with other data.
Make sure files can't be recovered
Running a low-level format or other utility that overwrites all deleted files with zeros or other trash is the only method to ensure files cannot be recovered. The low-level format can also be called zero fill, because it writes zeros to the hard drive. When the deleted file space is overwritten by zeros or other data, it can no longer be recovered.
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