The way it works on most computers, when you "delete" a file or program (including emptying the "recycle bin" in Windows), it's not actually instantly erased from the memory on the hard drive. It just means that the part of the memory that's occupied by the file/program is marked as being available to be overwritten by new data if necessary. The deleted object becomes part of the "free memory" on the hard drive, in other words. This is why it's possible to perform "data recovery" of deleted files, if you can locate the part of the memory that they were stored in, and they haven't been overwritten with new data yet. It also means that if you really want something to be truly, irrevocably removed from your computer memory, you can use "file shredder" software to make sure that it's overwritten (but even then, there are apparently some advanced data recovery techniques that might be able to recover the erased stuff, completely or partially).

What would this mean in the Tron universe? If we assume that "derez" is just another word for "delete", it could be possible that the Programs we see getting "killed" might be "resurrected" through data recovery. When we see Programs fade away, maybe they've just been relocated to some kind of shadowy limbo in the system memory, awaiting their final overwriting by new data.

Take poor Ram, for example. When Flynn has returned to the Real World after his adventures, it might be possible for him to restore the friendly actuarial Program if he can locate the memory in which he was stored (which shouldn't be too hard for a genius programmer/hacker, right?). He would have to be quick about it, however, since I imagine that deleted files could be overwritten fairly soon in a big corporate network with multiple Users like the ENCOM system. Once he's gotten over the thrill of being back home and having defeated Dillinger, I'd like to think that he hurries over to a computer in the empty offices and does his best to restore his digital companion during the same night, since it might be too late once the building opens for business the next day. I'm sure Roy Kleinberg would appreciate it as well.

I also like to imagine what would happen if you're not quick enough to restore a derezzed program, if their data has already been partially overwritten. Would they show up missing an arm or a leg, or a chunk of their head? Would their mind have been altered in some way?

This could also mean that the digital world has their own versions of "ghosts", depending on what happens to derezzed-but-not-yet-overwritten Programs. Maybe there are stories going around about feeling the presence of dead Programs in places where they used to live, or seeing shadowy images of them in the corner of your eye, or hearing their voices whisper from far away.

When I started the second season of What If…?, I didn’t expect that the first episode (entitled “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”) would center on mysterious mechanics, data cores, and secrecy! The first season didn’t have it as directly, apart from one episode (“What If…Ultron Won?“) with a scene almost like one out of Raiders of the Lost Ark, although I compared the Watcher to an…

Which makes me think… if the machine itself was sentient… would deletion even actually make them forget? would they dream of increasingly corrupted deleted memories? traumatic memories dumped into the trash, left to twist and corrupt as each byte of horrible data is overwritten. in the end is it even better to have deleted it? having fitful dreams where the faces become blacked out by red and green and static. you no longer can see yourself in it because the data that made visuals of you in it has been overwritten. the emotions associated twist until they are no longer recognizable.

Many years ago I had a small let's play channel that was slowly gaining traction until I was bullied off the site for being a brony. I deleted all the videos I had put a lot of love and time into editing, but at least I still had all the original files on my computer. Then my hard drive died and I lost every single video.

I sent the drive off in 2017 to be assessed, and the files appeared to be intact, but I was quoted over £550 to recover them. Obviously I could not afford that, and the deep depression it has caused has haunted me ever since. Recently I looked into it again, and I've found somewhere that costs a little over £150. It has been many years since then, and the data may have degraded past the point of recovery, but I won't know until I send it off (and I was talked out of trying it myself).

So, I humbly ask for your assistance to heal this old trauma, and help restore these old videos for my mental health. I don't need every penny, but I do need help towards it, as I have no job. This could be from donations, but I'm also willing to take commissions to earn it. All proceeds will go straight into this fund.

So, I have a lil linux know how. Someone I know's Windows Boot SSD died on em. I helped unfuck it, but it still got me thinkin. "Do people know how to back up stuff after their PC commits seppuku?"

So What you'll need is:

-A friend's PC to create the usb tool -A USB drive (preferably USB 3.0) with 16 GB or more of storage -An external hard drive to store the backup image -An internet connection.

FIRST

Borrow your friend's pc or laptop.

Download balena-etcher or Rufus

Download a copy of ubuntu linux. Get a coffee, eat a sandwich. This'll take a while.

Once it's done, use Etcher or Rufus to install Ubuntu on the flash drive. Eject the usb, thank your friend, and go back to your malfunctioning compy and plug the usb in.

NOTE: THIS PRESUMES THAT THERE IS A SOFTWARE ERROR PREVENTING YOUR MACHINE FROM BOOTING. IF THE HARDWARE ITSELF IS BROKEN, THIS WONT WORK.

Ok, you're going to boot your PC into BIOS. How? Depends on who made the computer. Google "How to open bios on a [Blank] pc", and you should be able to find the answer pretty quick. Its usually by either spamming the delete key or f10 while your computer turns on.

Once you're in the BIOS, there should be a menu with boot options. Select the usb. It will boot your computer into ubuntu linux, running off that lil usb stick. Neat, huh? You'll get the option to try or install ubuntu as an operating system. You want to click "try".

Plug in the external drive you're putting the backup image of your drive on.

Hit the windows key and it should pull up a search bar. type "Disks" or "Gparted". it's the same program either way so, open it.

You should see something like this.

Depending on the size of your Boot SSD in windows, you may need to shrink the partition a bit. like If you have a 500gb drive handy, but the drive you need to back up is 1TB. So click on the bit that says "basic data partition"

click the gear icon

Click "Resize..."

Resize. if the external drive you're backing up to is BIGGER than the boot drive you're trying to back up, you can skip this.

Now there's two things you can do. The first is to simply create an image of the basic data partition where all your files are. The second is to back up the whole disk.

To back up the partition,

Select the basic data partition, click the gear icon, and select "create partition image"

Name it whatever you want, save it on the external drive. Go get another coffee and a sandwich, this may take awhile as well.

To make a backup of the whole disk, click on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner, and select "create disk image"

Same as before. name it what you want, save it to the external drive.

There you go.

To access the data, you need to restore that image to a new SSD or hard drive. You can do this using the same program. I recommend doing this AFTER you've done whatever was needed to fix windows.

if you're just restoring a partition image, not the whole disk, here's what you do.

If you have FREE SPACE on a drive, or new drive, you can click on the "+" button, create a new empty partition

and click "restore partition image" to make it readable. Then you can mount it as a new drive in windows and copy your stuff over. WARNING: THE PARTITION YOU'RE RESTORING TO MUST BE AS BIG OR BIGGER THAN THE PARTITION IMAGE

For a disk image, similar steps.

Three vertical dots on the upper right, select "restore disk image".

Select the full disk image from wherever you saved it and restore.

WARNING: Restoring a disk image will nuke anything already on the drive you're restoring it TO. So don't restore the disk image to your fixed boot drive, or to the drive you saved the disk image on.