Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (
More info?)
In the ol' days of DOS, using the 8.3 naming convention (8 characters for the
filename, 3 characters for the filename extension to identify the type of
data stored in the file), deleting the file would result in the last
character of the filename being replaced.
If you knew the full filename, no problem. If you had deleted say, all of
the files used by an application, then changed your mind, you would have to
know or be able to figure out what the missing letter should have been.
I don't know if the process is still the same for long filenames under
Windows XP.
--
Cordially,
Wayne H. Wilhelm
Personal Web:
http://www.quadracalc.com
"new office 2003 user" wrote:
> Thanks for replying to my post
> Can you elaborate what you mean by removes the reference to it. what do you
> mean by reference. Is it true that when a file gets deleted a letter from the
> filename gets removed and replaced with another character or something like
> that.
>
> "Rick "Nutcase" Rogers" wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Deleting a file just removes the reference to it, and marks the space it
> > occupies as available. The file itself and the space it occupies remains "as
> > is" until something overwrites it. This is the basis of the many recovery
> > programs, as they identify these files and allow a user to "recover" them.
> >
> > --
> > Best of Luck,
> >
> > Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
> > http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
> > Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
> > www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
> > Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
> >
> > "new office 2003 user" <newoffice2003user@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
> > in message news:3D19F9E7-D477-4E19-AEE8-A4076F421C75@microsoft.com...
> > > Hi
> > > why do people say that they have deleted a file from their computer but if
> > > someone has enough knowledge or certain forensic software they can still
> > > retrieve this file that was supposably deleted. If they can retrieve it
> > > then
> > > it is not deleted. and when the file is supposably deleted but still in
> > > your
> > > computer is there a difference in the space that it takes in hidden areas
> > > of
> > > your computer. I would imagine that they would be compressed or sometthing
> > > else.
> >
> >
> >