TK, very similar concerns in this recent offer https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ifind-data-recovery/#comment-576117
It seems the Chinese market for data recovery products is flowering

oscar  –  6 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (+6)

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Laxative,

"I am inclined to the former."

And you would be wrong, at least some of the time.

The way the Windows file systems work, files & folders are stored in small pieces, & there's a sort of Table Of Contents that lists which pieces make up which files/folders, & where those pieces are stored physically. Nothing stored on a regular hard drive goes away, unless new data is written in its place -- when you delete a file/folder, delete a partition, quick format a partition/disk etc., you're just deleting part or all of that TOC. That's why they have disk wiping or erasing apps to clear the drive before you return or sell a PC, laptop etc. SSDs are another matter -- unlike a regular hard drive, you can't just write new data on top of old data, but have to clear the old data 1st. Since we, & Windows, & software are always writing & deleting files, that 2 step, clearing old data to write new, would slow SSDs down, so there's TRIM. It basically clears storage proactively, so if a location isn't listed in the TOC, it'll make sure there's nothing there, so writing to that location is faster.

Recovery apps scan a drive/partition making lists of every bit of stored data they find. Then they try to reassemble files/folders from that data. Apps like Erelive Data Recovery really do work -- the catch is that if a storage location has been cleared, or if something else has been written there, the old data is gone. After a quick format, & nothing else, you'd likely recover most everything -- after a system reinstall, lots of new data has been written on top of the old, so you couldn't recover everything, but you'd still very likely find stuff. If you want data to be gone forever, look into file wiping or erasing apps for conventional hard drives, special utilities, including from the manufacturer, for SSDs, or simply physically destroy the drive, which is what a lot of biz & gov agencies do.

mike  –  6 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (+18)

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