Got a problem. I think someone has been downloading questionable material onto my hard drive. I've also heard that deleting stuff doesn't really delete it. This true? If so, how do I find it and PERMANANTLY delete it? I have a suspicion of the culpret, but can't prove it. It's my fault, because I haven't used the log-on feature for two years. Anyone could get onto my computer anytime I wasn't on it. I just don't want to get blamed for it. As you can tell, I'm a computer novice. Any help would be appreciated.

What kind of stuff r we talking about, if its something simple like porn movies just do a search for the various typse of movie files. if its pics do the same thing but search for pic files. just go start -> search -> files and folders and in the search box type something like *.mpg the *. means all files of that type. I would also suggest you go to my computer ->tools -> folder options -> view, and expand the hidden files and folders icon and click on show hidden files and folders the apply and ok. Do this before doing the search. If you are looking for something more complicated you'll have to provide more info

I've tried that. But, I've heard that if stuff is deleted, it's not really deleted, but still on the hard drive somewhere. If it's not there, is there a way to check for deleted stuff and ensure it's gone?

No It's not true. Well if someone wants to retrieve deleted info from your hard drive it might be possible with some third party software. But usually if you delete a file by pressing shift+delete it will by pass your re-cycle bin and will be deleted straightway. Check your re-cycle bin folder on the desktop to see if you stil have any of those files which you had deleted before. IF you get any file there delete it from the re-cycle bin.

the reason 3rd party s/w works is because it isnt really deleted BUT only removed from the FAT [File Allocation Tables] but is still there intact on the disk itself and is never deleted BUT can/is over written file shredding utilities should help for that though as it scrabbles it up b4 deleting it form the FAT

Is there a way to permantly delete the deleted files without having to totally reformat my hard drive? Any free software that will do this?