with windows, deleted files can (aparrrently) be recovered - is this the same with Linux?
How does Linux differ in this kind of file handling to Windows?

If you say to "move to trash" then you can just put it back. If you chose "delete" or "shread", good luck. There may be something out there but it will be blind luck. If you chose "shread" just forget and move on. I doubt there is any hope.



PS. be careful

The answer really depends on how you initially deleted the file and how long you've waited to change your mind. If you did a simple rm from a command line, then you might be able to recover the file using one of those tools that checks the inode status. Unfortunately, if you've waited a while, they inode may have been reused. If you're deleted the file in a GUI environment by dragging it to a trash can, you can generally drag it back out as long as you haven't emptied the trash.

sorry, maybe I asked the question in an unclear way.

What I'am interested in knowing is how the computer actually works, and the difference between the operating systems.



(I have just spent a good hour or two defragmenting my windows hard disk, yet this is un-necessary in linux)

(I suppose I should do a computer science course then I would know)

Try reading this:

http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Unix-and-In...TO/bootup.html

That may help.



As a matter of fact that whole site has a lot of stuff to read. Need to a bit myself.

thank you, I enjoyed reading that

Your welcome. If I started using windoze I'd be in a forum looking for help. I'd also be pi$$ed because it always crashes. I have only managed to crash Linux once. I did a really stupid thing. I mean really really really stupid. I deleted the /etc directory. Stupid huh? Would have run until I rebooted though. Just can't mount anything I guess.

Glad I had that /home on a seperate partition. Thinking ahead that time.

Later.

the dos and windows fat filesystem is very simple.
it has a file allocation table(fat) at the beginning of the disk.
you can navigate it by hand with a disk editor. it's inefficiencies, and
simpleness are what makes it easy to understand and to do file
recovery. the more complex and optimized a filesystem is, the harder
file recovery is, unless the file recovery is built in, or some program is
running that handles it, such as instead of deleting files, moving them
to a "trash" directory.
i was going to type in how the fat filesystem worked, but i'm tired and
my girlfriend just brought me some pizza, so i guess i'm done.