MP>A friend of mine that is running WinXP has asked me if there is a way to
MP>permanently delete a file from his system.  He knows he can use Shift-Del
MP>to make it look deleted, but he is asking how to completely remove files
MP>from the system so that they can never be recovered (bank info, etc.).

MP>I know of software that will completely wipe-out the entire HD, but I don't
MP>know of any that do so for individual files.  IIRC, the old Norton Desktop
MP>(from WfWG 3.11 days) had a "Shredder" icon that supposedly did that.

MP>Is there a method to permanently delete a file, rather than moving it to
MP>the recycle bin or otherwise leaving some recoverable footprint on the HD?

I would recomend a Free Program called "Eraser"

http://eraser.heidi.ie/download.php

It will can be set to do multipule passes of random overwrites for a
pretty secure deletion of data.
After it is installed it becomes a right mouse click option when you
click on a file or directory.
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