Think of your computer's hard drive as incredibly large kitchen table.
And each file on your computer is a piece of paper that gets placed on that table.
The computer keeps track of where each file/paper has been placed so you don't accidentally overwrite something.
When you delete a file, you are not removing the piece of paper. But telling the computer that "this space is now empty".
So the next time you need to save a file, the computer is free to put the new file/paper on top of the old one.
Optimal_Traffic1237 t1_iy3i3hc wrote
Reply to eli5 How is computer memory deleted? by unlikemike123
Here's my ELI5 version:
Think of your computer's hard drive as incredibly large kitchen table.
And each file on your computer is a piece of paper that gets placed on that table.
The computer keeps track of where each file/paper has been placed so you don't accidentally overwrite something.
When you delete a file, you are not removing the piece of paper. But telling the computer that "this space is now empty".
So the next time you need to save a file, the computer is free to put the new file/paper on top of the old one.