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I assume you are referring to deleting information saved to your hard drive.
The answer depends on what operating system (OS) you are using and how you delete the file.
Most OS's simply mark the file as deleted and then leaves the data on the drive. The OS might then write new data over any file that is marked as deleted at any time you later write data to the drive.
Semantic has offered programs that will recover these 'deleted' files as long as the data hasn't been overwritten by another file.
With Windows 95, Microsoft introduced a Recycle Bin. This alternate method of deleting files moves the files into a special folder on the drive. When the drive gets low on space, files are automatically deleted from the Recycle Bin to make room as needed. Files in the Recycle Bin can be safely restored as long as they remain in the Recycle Bin.
Windows Explorer's wired its delete key and delete menu into the Recycle Bin. If you press and hold the Shift key then Delete you can switch deleting files in the traditional manor, bypassing the Recycle Bin.
To completely delete data from a hard drive you need a special program to remove that data. These programs write data over the file in an attempt to destroy the data. Even still, a good forensics person might be able to recover the data. I've heard that up to the last there rewrites are recoverable.
Now for a Linux OS or a Mac, the rules are different. My limited experience suggests that the files are marked as deleted as and will be overwritten whenever the OS needs space on the drive.
As for information deleted from a program, that information is most likely gone unless that program has an undo function, or you haven't saved the changes to the drive yet.
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∙ 16y ago
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