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

Imagine a library with a bunch of books and a catalogue telling where all the books are located in the library. When you delete a file, only the books entry in the catalog is deleted. The book is still sitting on the shelf until the library buys another book and replaces the actual “deleted “ book.

It’s a little more complicated than that because chapters of the book are stored in different parts of library and the catalog tells where all the chapters are stored. Sometimes if you wait too long before trying to recover your deleted file one chapter of your book is overwritten and then your entire file doesn’t make sense anymore.

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