[Leaplist] Can a deleted file be recovered on one's personal computer?

[William Ferguson]

Thanks very much, Patrick and Jim.

Teach me another thing or two, please.

I have always had (up to this point in time) the understanding that
tho' I delete a
 file, in whichever way I did it, that somewhere and somehow, on the hard drive,
the file actually still exists.

Right off the bat handle----Is that understanding faulty?

And, if the file, tho' deleted, is still in existence somewhere on the disk,
 can it be retrieved/recovered?

Do specialists and Companies who offer a service in which they offer to
recover lost data files----do they offer to recover files which have been
deleted with the "rm" command?

Or do such specialists or Companies work almost exclusively with
Windows Op. Systems?

I've read here on Leaplist that there are programs which will "wipe" over
files which the User wishes to expunge.
It's my understanding that the User may choose a large number of times
to wipe over
the file to get rid of the file permanently.

So, if it is agreed by experienced Linux users that to really get rid of a file
in the permanent un-retrievable sense it has to be "wiped" over 25 or more times
doesn't that suggest that somehow it's very hard to remove a file even with
the "rm" or "delete" commands?

And, to me, the existence of a "Wipe" command (I've forgotten what
it's actually called)
tells me that even tho' deleted or removed, the data is still on the
hard drive somewhere.

No?

Thanks again,

William


On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 9:36 AM, Jim Hartley <xjimh at cfl.rr.com> wrote:
> "Trash" is pretty much a GUI function ... yes, there is a folder for it,
>  but not every program uses it, and mostly the GUI (Gnome or KDE) programs.
> Even those don't always put stuff in "Trash," some (Nautilis for example)
> have a "Delete Bypass Trash" option.
>
> Once you get down to the Command Line, it knows from nothing about "Trash."
> Using a "rm" command will delete the file, NOT send it to trash.
>
> Now the bad news - if a file is deleted (say with RM) there is no way to
> "unerase" it. The file system does not support this, so if you are thinking
> about the old DOS FAT file system and unerase, forget it!
>
> Bottom line - be careful what you delete!
>
> JIm Hartley
>
> William Ferguson wrote:
>>
>> My Op. system is Fedora 11.
>>
>> What I'm about to describe has happened several times.
>> I seek understanding of why this problem arises.
>> I seek information as to whether there's any potential for recovery of
>> lost data.
>>
>> When running my Linux Fedora 11 computer there are many occasions when I
>> send a file to "Trash."
>>
>> Later, when I open Trash, the file is there and can be expunged.
>>
>> But here's why I write to the List:
>> Often, when I open "Trash" after having sent a file to Trash, the file
>> is NOT in Trash. It has been deleted. Searching the machine
>> fails to find the lost file.
>>
>> Today I used "Find" to learn where files about "Subject X" were located.
>>
>> I created a Folder in my /home/william directory which I named
>> "Subject X."
>>
>> I opened both the just-located files screen and the New Subject X folder
>> so that
>> the the screens were side by side on the screen.
>> I highlighted those files.
>>
>> Then I dragged the Subject X files, as a group,  from whatever
>> location I had found
>> them in---dragged them, on the screen, as a group, to the new Subject X
>> folder.
>>
>> The /home/william folder now immediately  showed the addition of all
>> of the files to the new
>> /home/william/Subject X Folder.
>>
>> I thought:  Well, now, these files are now obviously successfully copied
>> to the
>> /home/william/Subject X  Folder.
>>
>> Then I closed the /home/william/Subject X Folder.
>>
>> Then I right clicked the highlighted files screen and chose from the
>> drop-down menu
>> "Move to Trash."
>>
>> I then opened /home/william and scrolled down looking for the "Subject
>> X" Folder.
>> No such "Subject X" Folder was found.
>>
>> I used "Find" again and tried to uncover the whereabouts of "Subject X."
>> There was no such Folder to be found.
>> And searching for individual files yielded zero results.
>>
>> My questions:
>>
>> How is it that sometimes sending a file to "Trash" works fine---
>> which is to say ---  the file is found when Trash is opened and may be
>> reactivated if  desired. ?
>>
>> But, unhappily, ofttimes the file has been deleted and never appears in
>> Trash even tho'  consigned to that Folder.
>>
>> Please teach me what I'm doing wrong.
>>
>> Is there any possible way that I can recover such LOST files?
>>
>> I don't remember the details of this next sentence:
>> In earlier versions of Fedora, I could sometimes find a "Trash"
>> Folder, I think it might have been in the "tmp" area of the Root
>> Directory, and the Trashed files could be recovered.
>>
>> Any guidance you may offer will be much appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> William
>>
>
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