Ok hi, apparently it seems that I made a not so good purchase.
And I’m now thinking of maybe returning it, but my HD is loaded with illegal software (cracked & serials) and of course a TON of personal files since I claim to be a writer and a photographer.

Basically about 5 months ago I bought at a large retail store a set consisting of:
- a Hyundai monitor (works fine)
- a Z23 printer (works fine) and
- a P4 – 1.8MHz – 256MB COMPAQ Presario (works fine I guess -not ONE crash yet)
( w / 40GB, DVD, CD-RW & a RADEON 7500 64mb video card).
- All for about $999.

Imagine buying all this at that price 2 years ago!
…but times have changes and apparently so has quality control.

Anyway, I seems that the videocard is bad and apparently (according to many of you) HP & PRESARIO owners should expect more hardware problems in the future.

--(Ok, for all the background, problems and developments on my situation please read the recent RADEON 7500 messages on this forum)--

MY POINT is that I was messing around last night with a couple of RECOVERY PROGRAMS (in this case: PC Inspector File Recovery & Disk Investigator) and I found A TON of old “deleted files” on my HD.

So now since I’m a little sore at COMPAQ, I might decide to empty my HD on to CD’s, delete everything and return the machine and get my money back so I can by an other one, now, HOW CAN I GET RID OF ALL MY FILES IN THE HARD DRIVE FOR GOOD?

…I mean, I honestly have nothing bad to hide (it’s a family computer), but like many of you I’m sure, I simply TRESURE my personal privacy and I’m a little paranoid too.

a) How do I do this?

b) What computer should I look for now? And what should I stay away from to avoid this again? Generic?

c) How good and compatible are Mac’s ? And the $$$ of macs, is it worth it?

THANKS IN ADVANCE !

Suggestions, Tips & Comments welcomed!

…any COMPAQ owners out there? What are your experiences?

There is a program called "System Shield" that finds and really deletes old files stored on a hard drive. The program is shareware and available online for free trial. I'm not sure if it is the best of the ones that are out there, but it is a free download and then you could try the recovery again and see if they are gone.

Okay, if you are fanatically serious about this, the only sure-fire way of guaranteeing nuking of all data is to go low-level, remove all your partitions, reset them and format. Everything is then nuked, and the most fantastic software owned by the CIA in the world can't find what isn't there.

ranchhand, I don't think that will do it. Just because ordinary Windows programs can't find it does not mean the files are erased.
Disk investigator proves that.
I would suggest doing some or all of the following post...
http://www.computing.net/windowsme/wwwboard/forum/29332.html Response Number 2

Then use the also free program from the writers of Disc investigator...
'Clean Disk'
http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/clndisk.html
- Comprehensive disk cleaning for the very tightest security (for Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000, WinXP) -
What is Clean Disk Security? - This program gives you secure file deletion, making sure that deleted files cannot be undeleted again. Deleting a file normally just removes the file's directory entry, but the data itself remains on the disk. This program completely eliminates the contents of deleted files. The highly acclaimed Gutmann disk cleaning method is now available as an option. This program can also clean the Window's swap file, and can optionally clean unneeded temporary files from your hard disk, such as your Internet browser cache, files in your system's Recycle Bin, and can clear the "recent files" list. Comes with a direct disk viewer for discovering exactly what is on your hard disk.
- Don't sell your hard drive before cleaning it with Clean Disk Security ™! -
I would try a few free programs similar to disc investigator afterwards to see if Clean Disc really does what the writers claim.
http://www.computing.net/security/wwwboard/forum/2224.html
http://home.arcor.de/christian_grau/rescue/

Please post back with your results for others and myself to see.

Lastly, good luck with getting a refund. In England, you are lucky if you can get 'after sales support' to answer the phone !

Hehe... If I worried about crackz and serialz, I'd have to burn and then compact my machine. Oh no! The cops are here! Quick, delete all the Porno files!!! Haha!

Seriously, a simple repartition, format and windows reinstall should do. If the information is really that "sensitive," find an identical hard drive, swap 'em out and transfer the old drive to your new computer.

The real question is whether Compaq will refund anything after 5 months. I wouldn't count on it.

As far as Mac's are concerned, they're SOLID machines, but extremely over priced. (IMHO) You also need to consider software, as most software won't be compatible from one platform to the other. I'd just build a new PC, preferrably NOT from an OEM channel.

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*** IT'S FINALLY HERE ***

EPoX 8RDA+ nForce2 Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP1700+ @ 166 X 12 = XP2400+
(2) 512 MB DIMM's of CL2 OCZ PC3200 DDR SDRAM
(in 128 Bit Dual Channel Mode!)
Gainward GeForce4 Ti4200 @ 300c/550m
Adaptec 2100S Ultra160 SCSI RAID Controller
(8) 10,000 RPM Ultra160 Seagate Cheetahs
(Running RAID0)