大多数情况下，除了知道已删除的文件已经不在我们的视线之外，我们很少会想到已删除的文件，但当我们删除这些文件时，这些文件会发生什么呢？今天的超级用户问答帖子回答了一位好奇的读者关于删除过程的问题。

今天的问答环节是由SuperUser提供的，SuperUser是Stack Exchange的一个分支，是一个由社区驱动的问答网站分组。

照片由杰拉德的世界（Flickr）提供。

问题

超级用户读者Shea A.想知道计算机上删除的文件会发生什么情况：

Correct me if I am wrong here, but when you delete something from your PC, all your computer does is write over some of the binary with 0’s replacing the 1’s (or something to that effect). So when you send something to the Recycle Bin, it writes over part of the file, then when you delete the file from the Recycle Bin, it writes more?

整个文件删除和回收站过程是如何工作的？

答案

超级用户贡献者Boann和Mary Biggs为我们提供了答案。首先，博恩：

Neither operation writes over the file. Moving a file to the Recycle Bin does just that, moves the file. Its contents are left completely intact.

Deleting a file from the Recycle Bin (or deleting it directly using Shift+Delete) removes the file name entry from the folder. The part of the disk previously occupied by the file is not modified or overwritten and still contains the file data, but that data is no longer linked to a file name. That spot on the disk is recorded as “free”, however, so future writes to the disk can reuse that space, and if you keep using the disk, the space will almost certainly be overwritten eventually.

In a case where you need to prevent recovery of deleted data, special tools exist to overwrite the data securely. That is not done by default because it is slow and increases wear on the disk.

接着是玛丽·比格斯的回答：

A file is in two parts:

• A directory entry which records the file name and also contains a list of the blocks on disk which contain the data contents of the file. The operating system then “knows” that these blocks are in use.
• The actual blocks which contain the data contents of the file.

When a file is deleted:

• The list of blocks in the directory entry are marked as “free” and returned to the operating system. The directory entry is deleted, so the file “disappears” from the file system.
• The actual blocks are not touched, so the data contents of the file remain untouched until some other new file overwrites them. This is the reason that file recovery software can often rebuild deleted files (but only if it is used soon after deletion).

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