thanks a bunch. will try the s/w

There are ways to recover data, even after a reformat. You might want to try a program called "eraser", or another called "killdisk".

If you already have Spybot installed, you don't need anything else. Launch Spybot, click Tools in lower left corner and then click Secure Shredder in the list that appears. Drag all files you want to delete permanently into that window and click "Chop away" button. It overwrites the files 5 times (default) so they can't be recovered. US Govt DoD standard is 7 times, if you care to increase the number of overwrites.

And once they're gone, they're g-o-n-e, so if there's any chance you need them in the future be sure to burn onto CD before chopping.

Ron