What happens to deleted text when you save a file?

[Alturas]

If you have an ASCII text or word processor file and you delete some
characters (text) inside the file, does that text get "wiped" from the
hard drive when you save the changes?

Or, does the text remain in recoverable clusters outside the original
file? Would it be intact as legible words if it was recovered? In
other words, do you have to wipe an entire file to wipe all deleted
characters that were once inside it?

Alturas

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

There is no way that you can recover deleted text in this instance.. once
you have saved the file with a name, that is what you get..

 

[Alturas]

There is no way that you can recover deleted text in this instance.. once
you have saved the file with a name, that is what you get..

I might need to clarify: the text that was deleted had already been
saved in a file. It wasn't just floating in memory before the file was
saved the very first time.

I am wondering if each subsequent save somehow "wipes" any text that
was changed or deleted from the previous instance of an already-saved
file.

Alturas

 

[Richard Urban]

If you make changes to a text file and resave the file, the old file is
deleted (you knew this). Good recovery software can recover the deleted
file, as long as the space it occupies on the disk has not been over written
by another disk write.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Phillips]

Are you talking about two files- ex Save1.txt and SaveAs2.txt; whatever you
do on SaveAs2.txt has no effect on Save1.txt, or about same name different
paths: "pathA/Save1.txt" and "pathB/Save1.txt" - one of them should be
untouched unless set for synchronization.
If you talk about Save1.txt only, no previous instances of it could possibly
coexist on the harddrive in the same location (same path).
Michael

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

If you have an ASCII text or word processor file and you delete some
characters (text) inside the file, does that text get "wiped" from the
hard drive when you save the changes?

Or, does the text remain in recoverable clusters outside the original
file?

It goes to the same place that lost socks go to when you do laundry.

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Richard

The problem here, of course, is that the file from which text was deleted
has been re-saved with the edited text content.. if one was to employ a file
recovery program, what would it be set to look for?

 

[Richard Urban]

As a small test, I modified a small .txt file 5 times, resaving it after
each modification. I then ran EasyRecovery Professional. Right there in the
recovery window it showed that 4 of the 5 files were ripe for recovery with
no file damage. The 5th had apparently already been over written and was
shown as destroyed.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Alturas]

As a small test, I modified a small .txt file 5 times, resaving it after
each modification. I then ran EasyRecovery Professional. Right there in the
recovery window it showed that 4 of the 5 files were ripe for recovery with
no file damage. The 5th had apparently already been over written and was
shown as destroyed.

Interesting. I always assumed the computer would try to re-save in the
same contiguous clusters when possible. That makes it seem like the
data gets dumped wherever the fastest location is vs. some sort of
fragmentation prevention.

Alturas

 

[Alturas]

Are you talking about two files- ex Save1.txt and SaveAs2.txt; whatever you
do on SaveAs2.txt has no effect on Save1.txt, or about same name different
paths: "pathA/Save1.txt" and "pathB/Save1.txt" - one of them should be
untouched unless set for synchronization.
If you talk about Save1.txt only, no previous instances of it could possibly
coexist on the harddrive in the same location (same path).
Michael

That's what I was thinking. Same file, same name. But the othr poster
says there were multiple instance of the same file behind the scenes.
I need to do some experiments.

Alturas

 

[Uncle Joe]

If you have an ASCII text or word processor file and you delete some
characters (text) inside the file, does that text get "wiped" from the
hard drive when you save the changes?

Not unless you save the file before exiting the aplication. If you
don't save the file (as shown on your screen), nothing about the
file changes. The 'deleted" text would sitll be there when you open
the file from its "Last-State."

If your File Save operation "writes" your file back in its original location
on your HD, hope of recovering the deleted data is almost exhausted
unless you have backup(s) of the file before you modified it.

Or, does the text remain in recoverable clusters outside the original
file? Would it be intact as legible words if it was recovered? In
other words, do you have to wipe an entire file to wipe all deleted
characters that were once inside it?

No, again. The changes you made (by deleting text) isn't stored in your
original file until you Save the HD file. When you launch the file and
open it within an application, its contents are written to RAM memory.
Many apps use their own "Clipboards" to save file modifications as
you make them. Once you Save the file, the contents are "dumped" back
to your original file's location unless you give the saved file a new name.
Then the new file (with its deletions) wouldn't overwrite your original file.
In the vast majority of applications, application clipboard-type memory is
cleared when you close the application. Ergo, little chance of finding it.

Keep good backups.

 

[Phillips]

The harddrive actuator will move the head to the nearest available location
marked as "free" and write from there but the location of the file can be
registered only once with the same "path." Hence, you can open the last
saved instance while you can recover some previous instances - assuming it
wasn't ovrwritten; with advanced undelete techniques, one could recover even
unrecoverable files, but it's way too techie.
Michael