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When the system deletes a file, the entry in the Master File Table is released to be either unlinked or reused, but it still remains on disk. Until the MFT entry is reused or overwritten, the file can be easily recovered: data recovery software can find the "lost" MFT entry and derive full information about the lost file from it.
The most common data recovery scenarios involve an operating system failure, malfunction of a storage device, logical failure of storage devices, accidental damage or deletion, etc. (typically, on a single-drive, single-partition, single-OS system), in which case the ultimate goal is simply to copy all important files from the damaged media to another new drive.
Data remanence is the residual representation of digital data that remains even after attempts have been made to remove or erase the data. This residue may result from data being left intact by a nominal file deletion operation, by reformatting of storage media that does not remove data previously written to the media, or through physical properties of the storage media that allow previously ...
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At this point the file can be fairly easily recovered by numerous recovery applications. However, once the space is overwritten with other data, there is no known way to use software to recover it. It cannot be done with software alone since the storage device only returns its current contents via its normal interface.
AOL's Search and Recover can assist you in locating any lost files or folders that may have been mistakenly deleted. Search and Recover is able to perform recoveries for many digital media and devices including cameras, music players, CDs, DVDs, memory cards and flash drives. Please note that solid state drives aren't covered. Additional info
This is how data recovery programs work, by scanning for files that have been marked as deleted. As the space is freed up per byte, rather than per file, this can sometimes cause data to be recovered incompletely. Defragging a drive may prevent undeletion, as the blocks used by deleted file might be overwritten since they are marked as "empty".
Permanent data erasure goes beyond basic file deletion commands, which only remove direct pointers to the data disk sectors and make the data recovery possible with common software tools. Unlike degaussing and physical destruction, which render the storage media unusable, data erasure removes all information while leaving the disk operable.