If I move a file within the same drive or partition, suppose from one folder to another, and then shred that file with a file shredder, would it still be recoverable? Is there still some trace of that file left in the previous location it was stored? Can it be recovered from that location?
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Why do you think that the file physically moves on the disk? – schroeder Aug 13 '21 at 12:49
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Moving the file is not like moving a piece of furniture. The OS just updates a special area on the disk and changes where the file resides. The content of the file is not touched at all.
You can test this by moving a file with 1GB, counting how many time it takes, and making a copy of the same file. You will see the move is instantly finished while the copy will take some time.
If you move the file around no matter how many times, and shred it, and have an HDD, it cannot be fully recovered. Some metadata may be recovered, some journal entries, and some previous sectors with stale data may be recovered, but not the full file.
If you have an SSD, or another non-HDD storage, it depends on how the shred operation is executed and how many money you have to use on the repair. If you have access to a very expensive and very resourceful laboratory (and a few hundred thousand dollars), it might be recovered. If you are a normal guy, and the ones trying to recover the file don't have a couple hundred dollars to bet on the recovery, you are fine.
ThoriumBR
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What about moving a file to another external hard drive? Isn't it like copying and deleting the file? What would happen in this case? – Musa Aug 13 '21 at 14:02
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Musa: Usually the semantics of a move operation from one logical drive to another with a different file system is to just copy the file and leave the original unchanged. Or to not allow the move operation. On a ui level, if drag and drop is used, it can change a move in the ui to a copy if another drive is involved. – gnasher729 Aug 14 '21 at 20:56