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Thread: Where do deleted files go of removable drives?

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    Banned Jimmy Little's Avatar
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    Where do deleted files go of removable drives?

    Just a passing thought really, when you delete a file from a hard drive it goes to the recyle bin, so what about files from removable drives, such as memory cards and pen drives? Do they attend a temp location before they pass away? And can they be brought back to life once deleted from the removable drive?

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    most removable devices are instant deletion (well, as close to "instant deletion as you can get. The allocation tables will be set to "unused" for where the data was in most cases), unless you've told it otherwise. system restore may take copys of some things, but never rely on this.
    it also depends on the storage media. for example, if its a solid state drive, such as a USB pendrive, recovery is near impossible.
    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen View Post
    And by trying to force me to like small pants, they've alienated me.

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    Banned Jimmy Little's Avatar
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    wow thanks Agent! have some rep points !! it was just one of those things that made me think, i have not lost any data, i just wondered where the files went.. I wonder in future versions of windows if this will change and all files make there way to the trash can?

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    Will work for beer... nichomach's Avatar
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    I don't see that happening, indeed I hope it doesn't, for security reasons amongst others. Say you have an encrypted USB drive that you carry between multiple machines; you work on a document on it, then decide you don't need it. You delete it, thinking "It's gone now". Unfortunately, it's actually been placed in decrypted form in the recycle bin of the machine you were working at...

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    iMc
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    Ive got into the habit of always using Shift-Del when deleting. That way it ignores the recycle bin. I hate that thing. hehe
    HEXUS|iMc

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    Quote Originally Posted by iMc
    Ive got into the habit of always using Shift-Del when deleting. That way it ignores the recycle bin. I hate that thing. hehe
    You can disable it totaly
    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen View Post
    And by trying to force me to like small pants, they've alienated me.

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    yup, I nuked the recycle bin too..

    Norton's protected recycle bin is evil, I removed noton a while ago for something better and less of a system-hog, but had several gig's of stuff I couldn't remove (in the X:\recycler\nprotect directories), all with names like "00004270."
    Try to delete it and you got a nice message "Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk." *angry face*

    Found a fix though..

    Drop into a dos box and enter del \\?\x:\recycler\nprotect\*.* (where x is the drive letter)

    Et voila! 12gigs of freed drivespace
    Last edited by Stoo; 11-06-2004 at 12:58 PM.
    (\__/)
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