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Recently I did a clean install of Sierra and I deleted a text file which is under 3MB.I scanned the disk immediately using data recovery software and I was surprised not to find the file there.Is this completely normal or not.

Before I did a clean install I did the same thing but the file was still there.

Allan
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    SSD or HDD? The way in which files are deleted is somewhat different between the two. How full the disk was at the time can also make a difference. – calum_b Jul 06 '17 at 17:37
  • My disk is a SSD and has 86.69GB free. –  Jul 10 '17 at 17:07

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The OS, technically, has nothing to do with how fast something gets deleted; it's how quickly your drive implements the "erase" ATA command.

If you deleted a file by "moving" it into your Trash, it will be there until you empty the trash. However, if you deleted the file by using a Terminal command (rm for example), it's gone as you have bypassed the Trash altogether.

Now, if you are using a hard disk drive, there is a chance of recovery; the sooner you attempt recovery, the better the chances. However, if you are using a solid state drive (SSD), it's gone for good. The TRIM command to erase happens almost instantaneously; there's no remnants to recover because the block(s) that your data occupied are immediately marked as "new and unused" and the SSD is instructed to return zeros or random values if you attempt to read from it/them. See this answer for additional details on this process.

Allan
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