Cutting and pasting is the same as a deletion - the file is marked for deletion in the file allocation table, but the bits representing the file remain until the operating system runs out of unused bits and has to start writing over top of areas marked for deletion. (Sectors of storage marked for deletion are overwritten in the order they were marked for deletion (oldest used first, newest used last, with a few exceptions that I won’t go into).
Formatting isn’t a true “wipe” of the storage device. The act of formatting simply marks all areas of the storage as usable, and removes their entries in the file allocation table. Only a multi-pass format (write all zeros, then write all ones, then write all zeros again) truly wipes the storage. You’ll oftentimes see this method referred to as DoD Wipe, or “Department of Defense” wipe. It’s similar to how President Nixon erased his recordings of conversations during the Watergate scandal. But, I’m willing to bet that some tech in the future (possibly with the aid of AI?) will be able to recover those recordings. 🙂
Hope that helps.
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