Strange Message

Hello,
After receiving a virus or something similar which wiped a lot of files and passcodes from my computer, I decided possibly the best course of action would be re-format. I tried to to this, making sure I was on the correct drive i.e. c etc. I had saved all necessary information to my F drive (old drive) and tried to quick format. It wouldnt do it.
I looked around the web and one suggestion was to put the xp disc in the machine and use that. This I did, there was one hitch when it couldnt find a file but the option to continue was there. I did this. It continued for a while and then an error message came up saying the operation had failed. It took a while and a couple of attempts to re-boot before I got back to the operating screens I had been using.
I thought I would cut my losses and transfer everything back from my old drive to the current one and wait until my new computer arrives in a couple of weeks. When I opened my old drive there was none of the information there. I had various copies of CD, DVD and other information - all gone. Luckily I had backed up the personal information but the tracks are gone.
I now notice there is a strange error message on the first drop down from the c drive when I go into explorer - $WIN_NT$.~BT what is this and can I safely delete it.
Most things seems to be working fine. Sorry to be so long winded. I have windows xp professional and office xp on my machine. C drive is 120gb and F drive is 40gb. I will have to reformat this machine when I get my new machine so any indication of how would be grateful.

 

Try a disk wiper, here's a link for one: http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/securedelete.shtml

 

Thanks, clicked on the link, loaded the page. Unable to get the further link to load - strange.

 

There's many of them on the net, but try this: http://www.birdcomputer.ca/Software/WipeDisk.zip