when a file is moved to the trash can (mac had one first), the actual events that happen is the file name is marked in the file allocation table. this basically locks the file in its current state. Any files marked show up in your recycle bin even if the disk is moved from computer to computer.
when you empty your recylce bin, the actual events happening is the first character of the file name is changed to a special character (used to be a $). From here the actual data of the file is left in place until such time that the data needs to be overwritten (this ishow data recovery works)
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