Where does permanently deleted files go?
When you delete a file from your computer, it moves to the Windows Recycle Bin. You empty the Recycle Bin and the file is permanently erased from the hard drive. ... Instead, the space on the disk that was occupied by the deleted data is "deallocated."
Are deleted files really gone?
So where do deleted files go? Whenever you delete a file in your computer and empty your Recycle Bin, your data is not entirely wiped out from your computer. Although you can no longer see the file in the location it once was and your operating system no longer has it, a copy of it still exists on your hard drive.
Where do deleted files go if not in Recycle Bin?
Where do deleted files go if they are not there in the Recycle bin? Although files are deleted from the Recycle Bin, they still physically exist on the hard drive. They remain there until overwritten by new data. Once overwritten, the only recovery method is by using backup storage media.