What's in the backup drive?

I have a HP laptop with windows 7. I recently changed user accounts and kept the files in a separate folder and shredded the folder. I am wondering if some of that data still exists on the backup drive. If so how can I purge that drive and if I do will it effect my operating system. I do not have anything that I need to be backed up. Thanks

 

Most of the time a backup drive will only contain a clean operating system for you to recover your laptop with if it gets messed up. I don't think any of your files will be on the drive but you should be able to open it up and have a look.

 

Based on having done dozens of factory restores on virus-infested PCs, I *think* the restore partition is set as read-only; it is basically impossible for the PC to write data to it.

To avoid software piracy, many restore partitions will not show all the files (unlike an OEM or retail Windows DVD). There is some sort of encoding where the restore media has to match the OEM BIOS before the files will expand and load.