If you send a file and then delete it from your computer is it completely gone?

Question

For example once you send a photo file from your computer to another computer then delete it from yours is there a way of retrieving that file once it has been deleted? Is it still in your computer somewhere? If my computer was being "cleaned out" will the file be found then?

Answer 1

If you do not want your files to be recovered, then use a program called "simple file shredder" to delete it. Download and install it from download.com.
If you want to find deleted files from your computer then download and install Free file recovery software
PC Inspector
http://download.pcinspector.de/pci_filerecovery.exe

(Remember once the file is deleted it's name is changed. therefore you have to identify your file by its extension, size, the time it was deleted etc.You can recover files deleted almost a month ago)

Answer 2

The deleting of files does not actual delete them it just marks the space it occupies on the hard disk as free to be written too. The only safe way to delete any file is to overwrite the entire hard drive many times with random 0's and 1's, the number of overwriting passes are based on how secure the delete has to be, private standards are 2-5 times, business standards are 5-10 and government and military are 10+ overwriting passes.
All things that are simply deleted can be recovered with the right programs.

Answer 3

Not certainly, but possibly. To get rid of it completely you need to install eraser software, eg as available free at:
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser
and then once you have deleted the file ordinarily you can right-click on your recycle bin to get the deleted files erased permanently. The data in them, photos or whatever, is overwritten several times over in a way that ensures it can never be recovered.

Answer 4

NO, the file will always be there. If you have the correct software you can re-find anything that was originally saved to your hard-drive..

A WORD OF WARNING........ If you scrap your PC and take it down the local dump take out your hard drive and smash it to pieces. These are re-cycled and often end up in third world countries where any valuable information can be recovered and used by criminals using your ID/information. Especially important if you keep banking details on your PC.

OR... completely re-format the drive before dumping it........

But personally I would smash it to bits and if possible, burn the disc itself in a fire....

Answer 5

All it does when you delete a file is change the obvious pointer to it, it's still there. Read some of the investigations into child porn and how they recover incriminating evidence from personal computers all the time.

Answer 6

It's 'gone' in the sense you can't get it back. But someone with the right software might be able to.

I believe that as you save more stuff onto say, your hard drive, it could be deleted then (or in effect, written over the top of)

Answer 7

yes driverescue will do this for you
when you delete something the pc is told to egnore the file
the recovery program change the file back so you can see it

Answer 8

yea it is still there. the reason i know this is because my boyfriend mistakenly deleted his final year dissertation for university. his dad worked in the MFI building and talked to one of the police men there about it who told him they had the means of getting it off his computer, which they did for a favour to his dad.

Answer 9

Go to the SENT folder and look for the sent e-mail. then open it up and click the attachments then OPEN. Then you should be able to open the file you sent and you can save it now.

Answer 10

Well if you get the person who you sent it to to send it back to you, you can get it back that way