how “permanently deleted” files in a computer are still accessible by data recovery tools?

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So i was enjoying some down time for myself the other night taking a nice warm bath and letting my mind wander when i suddenly recalled a time when i worked at a research station and some idiot managed to somehow delete over 3000 excel spreadsheets worth of recently collected data. I was charged with recovering the data and scanning through everything to make sure it was ok and nothing deleted…must have spent nearly 2 weeks scanning through endless pages…and it just barely dawned on me to wonder…exactly…how the hell do data recovery tools collect “lost data”???

I get like a general idea of like how as long as like that “save location” isnt written over with new data, then technically that data is still…there???? I…thats as much as i understand.

Thanks much appreciated!

And for those wondering, it wasnt me, it was my first week on the job as the only SRA for that station and the person charged with training me for the day…i literally watched him highlight all the data, right click, and click delete on the data and then ask “where’d it all go?!?”

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35 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Let’s imagine a city planning department.

They give permission to build on a lot. This is like writing a file.

After someone builds a building on the lot, if someone new asks to tear down the building and build something new. They’ll grant peission to do that. This is what deleting a file does, it’s permission to use the lot for some new purpose. However the structure hasn’t actually been torn down, it’s just available to do so.

Only when a new file is actually assigned that space is the old building removed and a new one built.

Restoring a file is recreating the planning department paper that says there is a building here and here are the details of how to use it.

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