Deleting a file usually doesn’t erase it: Windows marks the space as free, HDD data can linger, and SSDs may clear it with TRIM

Here is a thing that trips people up almost every time it comes up in conversation: deleting a file in Windows does not necessarily erase its contents immediately. On a traditional hard drive, the magnetic data usually remains where it was until Windows eventually writes something else over the same space. The gap between what “delete” sounds like and what it technically does is why Windows File Recovery and third-party recovery utilities can sometimes restore files that are no longer visible. What happens next on a hard drive depends on subsequent activity. On a hard drive, the book can remain on that shelf until another one replaces it.