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Digital Forensics: What Happens When a User Deletes a File or Empties a Recycle Bin?

 When a user deletes a file or empties the recycle bin on their computer, the operating system marks the space occupied by the file as available for new data to be written over it. However, the actual data that made up the file still exists on the storage device until it is overwritten by new data.

In other words, deleting a file or emptying the recycle bin does not physically erase the data from the storage device. Instead, it simply marks the space occupied by the file as available for reuse.

If the user needs to recover the deleted file, they may be able to do so using file recovery software. This software can scan the storage device for traces of the deleted file and attempt to recover it before it is overwritten by new data.

It is important to note that the chances of recovering a deleted file decrease over time as new data is written to the storage device. Therefore, it is advisable to attempt file recovery as soon as possible after the deletion occurs.

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