Thread: Where does all the trash go?

It sits there for a week or two in case the mods need to check anything and then it gets deleted.

You said it yourself it gets deleted! Don't think of files as something physical their not. Think about a file as the same as a pencil drawing, when you create a file the computer draws it, when you delete the file the computer just rubs it out same as you would a with a rubber on a pencil drawing.

^^
Don't think he's talking about forum trash.

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

Don't think he's talking about forum trash.

Jing lor!?

jing jing

Originally Posted by Jesus Jones

Where does all the trash go?

SubZeroSiam

Originally Posted by baldrick

your file is just a whole lot of numbers that are stored in their binary representation. so your hard drive for example is a vast array of binary bits that can be on or off ( 1 or 0 ).- these blocks of binary data are organised by your file system - it keeps a record of where your data is in the the vast array , simplistically , the address in the array where it starts and where it stops - so all the on and off bits between are then fed through the program whose job etc is to interpret that file type.

when you delete you are basically telling the file system organiser that those bits are now free to be used again , so the bits are still there until they get used again - overwritten.

Thanks for the explanation. If that's the case, then how do special authorities for instance retrieve information that has already been deleted and pressumably over-written? Not that i have anything to hide of course.

Originally Posted by Jesus Jones

and pressumably over-written?

if it has been overwritten - and normally to scrub a drive you will use a program that will write all on's (1's) or off's(0's) or random to every bit on the drive.

certain security specs say that it has to be done a number of times , 3+

there have been articles , and maybe proof on concepts that say that by examining the disk platter molecules they can determine previous states of the sectors of the disk which is why some require multiple write passes over the entire disk to ensure it is scrubbed clean.

if your data is encrypted correctly it really wouldn't matter.

there are always articles on geek news sites about data storage devices being bought second hand online - ebay etc -that still contain secret military data or bank numbers etc.

encrypting your data is the best way to secure it.