When we empty our trash folder, where does that ''trash'' go?

[wegs]

I've become a little obsessed lately with Outlook, as I've had ongoing issues with my work account. I'm still getting error messages, informing me that I'm approaching my ''quota,'' and only have 5% space left. So annoying. But, I'm finding that cleaning out my archives and trash folders is helping.

So, my question is, where does the trash go after we ''empty" the trash folder?

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The first letter of the file is erased, removing it from the File Allocation Table. If you erase bigdog.exe and search for ?igdog.exe you should find a file. Just rename that one bigdog.exe.

This is why some folk say "deleting is not erasing!" Epstein knew above that.

 

[Seattle]

It goes to the garbage dump where they recycle the vowels and only the consonants are actually thrown away. The vowels go back to your keyboard where you can reuse them.

 

[Janus58]

The first letter of the file is erased, removing it from the File Allocation Table. If you erase bigdog.exe and search for ?igdog.exe you should find a file. Just rename that one bigdog.exe.

This is why some folk say "deleting is not erasing!" Epstein knew above that.

There's a bit more to it than that. "Deleting" a file, also frees up the memory used by that file ( which can be spread out in segments throughout the memory). So If you delete a file, the computer can write over the file data as it needs to. The longer you wait in an attempt to recover the file, the higher the odds that parts of it will have been over-written and truly gone. Just those parts of the file that have not been overwritten can be recovered.

 

[RainbowSingularity]

Epstein knew above that.

if you legalize prostitution(regulate it and police & provide health standards and access to mental health care, drug addiction services & general sexual health)you get the entire industry working with the police to stamp out underage prostitution & slavery inside the industry.
but the usa do not respect women's rights so they keep it illegal.
not legalizing prostitution keeps sex workers as slaves and guarantees the industry stays hidden to provide environments where slave traders like epstien can thrive.

i find it poor taste for you to bring down a thread about outlook express by raising child sexual slavery off hand.
as if there is some way that the slave masters can be caught and the slave trade ended by digital ability
when the primary vehicle servicing the slavery is prostitution being illegal & unregulated.

it is a disservice to young women and women in general.
you throw that comment in at their expense.

very poor taste.

 

[DaveC426913]

It goes to the garbage dump where they recycle the vowels and only the consonants are actually thrown away. The vowels go back to your keyboard where you can reuse them.

A few years ago, in an attempt to Go Green, I started a recycling program.

Whenever I cut text out of a document or code out of a program, I would sort and group the characters alphabetically and upload them to a public webpage where others could copy them for their own uses rather than create new ones for themselves.

True story.


Other ways to Go Green: all my posts are made from recycled electrons.

Also true.

 

[RainbowSingularity]

Also true.

remember when formatting was a thing...

now you just throw away all your computers, laptops cell phones & whiteware into a landfill and let some housing developer build houses for the poor income workers so their house explodes under them and their children gradually absorb heavy metals and toxins.
preferably where rain water flows through it to supply local streams where kids play & animals drink from.

 

[DaveC426913]

i find it poor taste for you to bring down a thread about outlook express by raising child sexual slavery off hand.

He didn't. You did.

 

[billvon]

So, my question is, where does the trash go after we ''empty" the trash folder?

It doesn't really go anywhere. Every document is just a pattern of bits in locations in memory. When you "save" something, you put it in memory and tell the computer to keep track of where that pattern is. When you delete it (or empty trash, or whatever) the computer just forgets where it is, and you can't see it any more. It's usually still there, just inaccessible. (You can always hard delete it by writing zeros to every location used to store the file but most computer operating systems don't do that.) The next time the computer needs more space, it uses the space and overwrites your email with the new data it wants to save.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

There's a bit more to it than that. "Deleting" a file, also frees up the memory used by that file ( which can be spread out in segments throughout the memory). So If you delete a file, the computer can write over the file data as it needs to. The longer you wait in an attempt to recover the file, the higher the odds that parts of it will have been over-written and truly gone. Just those parts of the file that have not been overwritten can be recovered.

I did mention the FAT. And from a cell phone you only get so much from me.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

remember when formatting was a thing...

now you just throw away all your computers, laptops cell phones & whiteware into a landfill and let some housing developer build houses for the poor income workers so their house explodes under them and their children gradually absorb heavy metals and toxins.
preferably where rain water flows through it to supply local streams where kids play & animals drink from.

What planet did this happen on? And why aren't you there?

 

[DaveC426913]

What planet did this happen on? And why aren't you there?

You took the words right out of my mouth.

 

[RainbowSingularity]

He didn't. You did.

cheer leader ?
shake ya pom poms

What planet did this happen on? And why aren't you there?

planet equal rights Democracy & liberty

its an illusionary world mostly contained in political vote winning lies sold to fake liberals.

you had to take a shit in the middle of the thread.
why... thats your personal baggage.
now dave want to roll in your shit with you.

what ever floats your boat.
(and there i will leave it)

 

[DaveC426913]

I did mention the FAT.

Man, you're just beggin' for judgement from RS!

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Pedantic pomposity is fun to watch, isn't it.

 

[DaveC426913]

cheer leader ?
shake ya pom poms

Good. This indicates you acknowledge your inappropriateness yet have no rebut.

Now, back on-topic please.

 

[wegs]

Lol *face palm*

Thank you billvon - that was helpful.

@Janus - so once deleted, it can truly be “gone?” I guess I didn’t realize that emptying my trash folder erases the data. Or does it.

 

[wegs]

It goes to the garbage dump where they recycle the vowels and only the consonants are actually thrown away. The vowels go back to your keyboard where you can reuse them.

Oh you!

 

[DaveC426913]

@Janus - so once deleted, it can truly be “gone?” I guess I didn’t realize that emptying my trash folder erases the data. Or does it.

You need a process that explicitly reformats the bits to 1 or 0 or random. Without that, the data is still there - temporarily.

And, for about 1500 bucks, you can take the drive to a service where they will recover as much as possible.

 

[James R]

@Janus - so once deleted, it can truly be “gone?” I guess I didn’t realize that emptying my trash folder erases the data. Or does it.

Typically it doesn't, not straight away.

Deleting a file on your hard drive only really changes the table that tells the computer which parts of the hard drive space are "free space" and which contain files. It doesn't change the actual data that was written in the space that is now marked as "free".

As others have said, once the space is marked as free, there's nothing to stop the data that this there being overwritten by a new file or files. But until that happens, the whole or parts of the "old" data will still be there.

There is software available that can be used to actually over-write "deleted" files with random data, thus making the original data unrecoverable. But that is not what usually happens when a file is deleted.

There are lots of companies that make money trying to recover data that has been accidentally or maliciously deleted. But they can only recover data that hasn't been overwritten.

One other complication is that data in a file on a disc is not guaranteed to be stored sequentially on the physical disc. What happens instead is that the data is written in smallish chunks, and those chunks are linked together to give an overall "map" that tells the computer where to go to look for the next piece of the file. The chunks can be scattered all over the disc, in principle (this is sometimes called file fragmentation). After a file is deleted, some chunks might be overwritten, while others remain. So when somebody tries to recover the data, they may be able to get parts of it, while other parts are forever lost.