*sigh*
Okay, I've seen this topic numerous times on numerous sites, and I'm only going to answer it once here. All later posts can refer back to this, because I'm not going to waste my bloody precious time answering everyone who chooses to ignore the follow-up posts to the article named.
XP's "hidden" files are kept in per-user directories. If you left them in the OS default installation locations, they can be found under C:\Documents and Settings\
username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\content.ie5\ and C:\Documents and Settings\
username\Local Settings\History\history.ie5\ . Otherwise, they'll be in that same location under whichever drive/partition you've decided to keep them.
If you're referring to items "deleted" from the Recycle Bin, it should be noted that the data isn't actually deleted - only the drive allocated space is marked as available. This is the same on ANY OS on the market today, not just Windows. The data will be unrecoverable once it is overwritten with another file. Until that time, Undelete or any similar tool can easily recover the files from the drive's space.
The best way to permanently delete files is to "wipe" them from the drive space, typically DoD spec should be sufficient. There are a number of utilities out there that will do this for you, just Google for them or check out Download.com (warning: they've been known to unwittingly distribute worm-ridden files in the past, so be careful there). HandyArchive.com seems to have a good list of free
disk wipe and
undelete tools, but steer clear of the software in the ads.
In the end, however, it should be noted that the only TRULY SECURE method of deletion is to remove the drive from your computer, separate out the physical platters, run a magnet over them, then dispose of them in the fireplace or steamroll them into a landfill. This ensures that nobody can run a residual scan at a later date to recover ANYTHING from the drive, and is used by many defense contracts to keep their old drives from being compromised. I'm guessing the wipe is about as secure as you need your drive to be.
:cool: