Eli5: how do computers actually delete information entirely?

Question

How does it physically “forget” whatever coded form it held my word document in for example?

In: Technology

Answer 1

Computers store information like word documents using a bunch 1’s and 0’s, and also use pointers to let the computer know where that file is stored. When you simply delete a file it usually just deletes the pointer file and the computer “forgets” where the files are. To securely erase the files, you would need to rearrange those 1’s and 0’s into other random 1’s and 0’s by using a secure erase program