Venkat wrote:

>i find it difficult to understand entries of TWO antivirus programs(norton 
>AND macaf=
>fee).i know that branded and system builders computers come with one anti=
>virus program (mostly norton but some with macaffee)do some come with bot=
>h loaded?>>


We don't know for certain that they are both a-v. One may be a firewall or 
an entire security suite.  Or perhaps it's an enlightened manufacturer who 
generously (?) offers a choice. Or perhaps it's a retail shop
retailing both names, where the customer chooses which he wants at the time 
of ordering, and where the software is loaded at the time of ordering.  We 
aren't told it's a major brand.

Some shops retailing their own local brand/clone computers (the distinction 
is blurred) load the software according to the customer's wishes. In this 
case, they may have it all on their general-purpose OEM disk, modified to 
suit all eventualities.

As the writer appears to refer to tech assistance in re-loading XP, I 
suspect the latter is the case here.

And to answer your last query as to whether data on an old HD can be 
accessed, the short answer is yes. There is software available that will 
recover deleted data, even if it has been overwritten several times.  The 
degree of success depends entirely on a: what efforts have been made to 
destroy the data and b: how much money the enquirer is willing to 
spend.  Shredding software, followed by a reformat, is generally pretty 
effective at removing practically all traces of data.

Apparently the FBI or CIA, if need be, can recover remnants of just about 
anything off an old HD, if they want to throw 1000's of dollars and months 
of time into the task.  Or so I'm told---I have no personal experience of 
it. Not many of us have high-powered electron microscopes available for 
testing at an atomic level.

If you really want to hide your activities absolutely, hack the disk into 
very small pieces, burn them in a very fierce furnace, then drop the ashes 
into various parts of the deepest oceans.  You should be fairly safe then.

Don Penlington




 From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html

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