As someone who spends time programming, I of course find myself in conversations with people who aren’t as familiar with it. It doesn’t happen all the time, but these discussions can lead to people coming up with some pretty wild misconceptions about what programming is and what programmers do.

  • I’m sure many of you have had similar experiences. So, I thought it would be interesting to ask.
  • scorpionix@feddit.de
    18·
    9 months ago

    A friend asked me to atempt data recovery on some photos which ‘vanished’ off an USB stick.

    Plugged it in, checked for potential hidden trash folders, then called it a day. Firstly I havenever done data forensic and secondly: No backup? No mercy.

      • scorpionix@feddit.de
        3·
        9 months ago

        Well, here’s the important part:

        I have never done data forensic

        So yeah, I didn’t know that at the time. Anyway: Which tools are you talking about in particular?

        • korok
          4·
          9 months ago

          Someone else already named some tools, so I won’t repeat. But the reason this works is that even once you clear out those trash files, the OS usually only removes the pointer to where the data lives on the disk, and the disk space itself isn’t overwritten until it’s needed to save another file. This is why these tools have a much higher chance of success sooner after file deletion.