Where Do Deleted Items Go.

[Barsel]

When you delete things on a desktop computer or laptop where do they go?
Are they still there somewhere taking up space and if so, can you get rid of them permanently?
When I have sometimes deleted music tracks from the library, it asks do I just want to delete from the library or from the computer, but are they still there somewhere?
TIA

[bhg481]

When you delete a file all the computer does is mark the space it took up as being available to be used again, so it no longer occupies any useful space on the disc. As the disc begins to fill up the space will be overwritten and it will no longer be possible to retrieve the file from the recycle bin.

[ToraToraTora]

when you delete a file, all it does is mark the entry in the directory as available, the file is still there until it is overwritten by something else. Depending on the criticality of the data some software actually overwrites the data before marking the directory entry as available. This is not to be confused with the "recycle bin". It harks back to the early days of the way mag disks used to work. Although the hardware has move on the into SSDs etc as far as the OS concerned it is still a disc in the original configuration, directory blocks indexing the actual sectors on the disc.

[bhg481]

Deleting tracks from a library is different. A library is a collection of tracks and some tracks might appear in more than one library ie, the library is only a list. When you ask it to delete a library file it's asking you if you want to actually delete that file or just remove its name from that particular library.

[Peter Pedant]

they have data tags which get ripped off in deletion but are still there.
This allows the police to rediscover your naughty photos
and deleted emails

but if like me you dont want people trawling over this and that
then an erazer program is needed which over prints every space

https://eraser.heidi.ie/

like this - the little hero did some work for erasing like the used n Kabul for the CIA and it is FREE - or was. What a wonderful wonderful person he was to make it available for free

you can also programme is to overprint all your spare memory

[Peter Pedant]

I am not sure hoe you erase emails
and they dont go thro the recycle bin

[Barsel]

All sounds a bit too complicated for me.
I was wondering if I was to get rid of a lot of pictures , and no PP they're not naughty ones, if it frees up space on your computer.
Was thinking of sorting and filing the ones I want to keep, but there must be loads that I don't want to keep.
Also music tracks . Do they take up a lot of space?
Perhaps I could put the ones I want to keep onto a USB stick and delete the rest.
If anyone comes back to this thread, can you tell me how to check how much space you have left and how to free up space please?

[jno]

yes, it'll free up space to delete pictures, they can take up a lot of space. I don't know about music.

[bhg481]

It might sound complicated but all the work is done for you by the computer; the bottom line is if you delete a file the space immediately becomes available for re-use.
If you want to see how much disc space something occupies just display the directory it's in and right-click on the file that you're interested in.