[Computer Corner]

Did you know that when you simply delete something from your computer that it actually isn't deleted? It's more like renamed, and can be easily recovered by anyone!

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This article was originally posted to CflGeek.com, written by Eddie Boscana, and can be found here: DELETE doesn't always mean delete! (Part 1) - Central Florida Geek- Computer Repair, Web-Design, Home Theater, iPhone repair, and More!

We've all been there, the moment when you realize that you have deleted 'that very important file'. You know which file I'm talking about. It's the family pictures, or videos. Its the file you needed for your 'big project', or for 'the meeting'. It's the file that you worked hours on, meticulously slaving in front of your computer screen, spell checking, revising, grammar checking, revising, and so forth into the wee hours of the night. And then, in just one second with the wrong mouse click, you accidently deleted it and.. POOF! Its gone! Or is it?

" The truth is, when you delete something on your computer, it isn't really deleted."

The truth is, when you delete something on your computer, it isn't really deleted. When you press delete on your keyboard, or select delete from a menu, all you actually do is instruct the computer to remove the file from its File List, giving the computer permission to rewrite on that space, in the future. To understand how this works, think about your home. Deleting a file would be like removing the 'Mailing Address Numbers" from your mail box, and door way. By doing so, your house wouldn't cease to exist, but it would certainly be harder for the Pizza Delivery guy to find you! In the same way, when you delete a file from your computer, you are actually deleting the virtual address the computer uses to find that file. In other words, when you delete your file, the system doesn't "replace" or "Zero" the space, it simply frees it up to be reused at a later time. It is only when the file has been overwritten that it is actually deleted.

The reason your Operating System does this is to save time, and system resources. Just like your home, if you wanted to go 'off the grid', tearing it down would take a lot longer than simply removing the street address. Imagine trying to "overwrite" a large file that occupies lots of sectors on your hard drive. To really delete this file from your hard drive your computer would actually have to overwrite the data with new data. This could take a lot of time. Instead it simply removes the file name from the directory where the file is located and marks the sectors the file us as 'available space'. To reuse the house example we used earlier; Imagine if you put a sign in your front yard saying "FREE SPACE! BUILD WHERE YOU WANT". It may not take long for your house to be 'deleted' too! But, in the meantime... It's still there!

What does this mean for you?

Well, this could be really good news, or for some, really bad news! Why? Because, since your data wasn't really removed form the disk, it is possible to recover a deleted file. Even over long periods of time, and even after disks have been 'reformatted'! To do this Special Recovery software can be used to scan any storage device(like your hard-drive, thumb-drive, etc.) and search for these 'address-less' files. Once found, these files, as long as they have not been overwritten by new data, can be fully recovered, or in other words; a new address can be assigned to this property, taking the "FREE SPACE" sign out of the yard! Welcome back to the grid!

We saw an example of this during the famous "Casey Anthony Trial", where federal prosecutors where able to go back years into deleted history files to discover searches that were made from Casey's computer, like "chloroform".

This is welcomed news for those of you who need 'that file' for 'that meeting', but this also leads us to a very important security concerns if you have or have had very private, or confidential information on your computer, that you wouldn't others to find. Fortunately for you, there are also means of fixing this problem too! We will cover that in our next Blog "Delete Doesn't REALLY MEAN DELETE! Part 2"