Hi, Thanks for the quick responses ! zep, I don't think a 'clean up' is necessary. My computer is pretty clean. I've frequently used CCleaner, Super Anti-Spyware, Malwarebytes' Antimalware, etc. It's not so much 'infection' as bloat. I've done HJT several times last year (using Help2Go's Detective) with no issues. No, it's more like "Spring Cleaning" and I'm looking for a dumpster. :-D owbist, The disc I was given is a complete OS (XP SP3), which the guy makes. It's a great, "clean," and lean OS which runs faster than what one gets from the factory. It's a fully legal, compliant, etc. copy. As far as recovery discs, I have no CD burner, so I don't know how to go about doing that. And, if it would come to that, I would rather just pay the guy to do what I'm attempting to do than use recovery discs to just get this same bloated system back, if you know what I mean. :-) And, fwiw, I did something that might help me. I don't know. I downloaded drivermagician and created a "driver backup" folder, which I then zipped and uploaded to Skydrive. 33 meg. What I was planning was to bring my aunt's laptop over here to my house, access the Skydrive file, download, unzip to her desktop and then burn the folder contents to a CD using her laptop. Would this work ? The potential complication I foresee is: when I put in the XP SP3 disc and hit "install," what if it starts looking for drivers right away ? I can't install the drivers on my back-up CD when the OS CD is still in the CD drive ! Would the computer fully install XP SP 3 from the CD before asking me for drivers ? I.e. would I be able to install the OS and then remove the disc before putting in the driver back-up CD ? Hope I'm not making this sound too complicated for you -- or myself ! :-D Scott

I still haven't done anything with the drive as yet. I also have Acronis True Image, version 9. I have used it with an Iomega external drive that I have with my desktop computer. But there are things about it that I find confusing. That's why I was wondering about just using the Windows 7 backup since I thought I understood that it was an imaging type of backup. So what is the difference between "ghosting", and "imaging"? Do both do "clones" of the OS? I want to keep things as simple as possible. Owbist, if I do not intend to use the software that is on the drive, I do not need to copy it to the computer HDD do I? Yes, I do understand using a different drive letter for the external drive. With my desktop, that happened automatically. Don't know whether the Acronis software did that or the Iomega drive itself. I have three USB ports, so I think those have drive letters also. I just don't want to have to be re-doing something that should be fairly simple (I hope).

I use a Western Digital 80 Gb, external hard drive w/ USB2 conection. This drive has its own power source and does not swamp the USB port. (Most USB ports are protected from shorting. If a device pulls too much current from the port, it shuts down and a re-boot is required to get the port running again. I have a 120 Gb Passport drive for my laptop and the inrush of the drive motor will shut down the port. A "Y" connector is required so that the disc drive can pull power from 2 ports.) To back up my importnt data files, I do not use a "backup" utility that uses data compression and put a group of files into a file set. This harks back to tape drives and limited storge space. I simply copy my important data files using the same folder (directory) structure as on the parent drive. Now, the back up copies are readily available by a simple drag and drop operation. For example, you may have financial data that changes daily. Its simple matter to periodically write copies of the current files to the back up space.

As it happens, things have changed. The technician Dell sent came with the replacement hard drive (with pre-installed XP and drivers). He installed it - booted - and the same hard drive warning occurred. Turns out it was my second internal hard drive (that I use for data) that was going bad. It was a good thing I already had the 2TB replacement. So he put the 2TB drive in - returned my original hard drive - and all functioned well - no hard drive error messages. Now I do have work ahead of me - but this changes the nature of it. Much better scenario - but still requires thinking through. There are probably just a few video files on the second internal hard drive that I don't have copies of. I think they're still accessible - so I will either get a docking station - or better yet an enclosure (since I will need one anyway - as I'll describe later) to put it in - and see if I can transfer those video files to my new 2TB internal drive. I think it makes sense to test that drive to see what's wrong with it - if it's repairable by Windows XP (I think if I run chkdsk there are possibilities to repair some damage?). Should I do this? Or are there other methods to safely test out the health of my hard drive? It is also a Western Digital. The timing of the hard drive failure is now making more sense. I had spent the previous weekend backing up lots of data files onto this second internal 1.5 TB hard drive. I think some of those transferred Tivo files might be problematic. (I say that for 2 reasons - when I've tried to defrag the hard drive, I recall a few files that couldn't be defragged - and while it was hard to see the path, I think they were the Tivo videos. Also, there were a few Tivo videos that failed to work properly when I tried to run VideoRedo to remove commercials. Some just seemed to be bad files - of course, I don't recall which those ones were - but it makes me wonder if it's the sources of the problem on that second hard drive.) Next step is call Dell - I bought that second hard drive from them 1 1/2 yrs ago. It has a 3 yr warranty. I'm not sure if the warranty will be honored by Dell or Western Digital (the brand of drive). So I figure I'll be getting a replacement 1.5 TB hard drive - which I can either install internally - use it as program drive or data drive. I can use the original 500GB drive externally. Or maybe I should keep it the way it is now. Original 500GB internal hard drive, second 2 TB internal hard drive - and put the replacement 1.5 TB hard drive in an enclosure and use for back-ups. One reason I'd like to use the 2TB drive as a program/boot drive (or master drive - I'm not sure of the language) is bc. it's supposed to be a faster drive - Western Digital Black Caviar 2TB drive - 7200rpm and 64MB Cache that was a bit pricier, but I thought it was worth it for quality and speed. It's this one: http://www.amazon.co...ref=oss_product (although I paid less than the price listed online) I'm new enough at all this that I don't understand everything about hard drive speed. I think that a larger drive can potentially slow things down a bit as it has to work to see date over a larger area/amount of data - but that the 7200rpm and 64MB cache will offer more speed - and the reviews suggest this thing is fast. I'd love any guidance in weighing these factors as I decide which to make the primary drive. I also want to clarify what to do with this drive. I don't know how to partition. And if I did, how large a partition should I create on this 2TB drive - if it were to hold the operating systems and programs? I don't know how much room that takes - and how to be sure to take the appropriate sections of my original drive to place into this partition. I can figure out what size each portion of my original hard drive is? I just don't know which folders go into the partition for programs/software? I don't want to leave any out - and I'm concerned I will miss some folders bc. I do not recognize what they are. If I partition the drive, I gather I don't clone it - but do it in sections. I also don't know if I should format it first. Or partition first. Disk management is fairly new to me although I did format a couple of drives. I didn't get into partitions and copying from one drive to another. Does it make sense to use this 2TB drive (which I bought for it's speed and good functioning) as the main drive? If so, I don't know the order of operations? Clone my original drive to this drive? Format and partition first (in which case I'll need to know how to get the proper system files vs. data files into the right partitions). I think I know that if I make this 2TB the master, I have to either switch the cables - but since I think they won't stretch to the second hard drive bay, I'll probably have to swap them. I am so relieved not to have lost my original drive. Although it consumed the better part of last weekend, I did learn plenty - and feel more confident cutting my "recovery" teeth on recovering data from the bad second drive which only has some video at stake. Just as a reminder my original drive has about 350GB data. Thanks everyone. Lynn. PS - I did learn a couple of important things from this technician. First, he updated the bios in my computer (which was several versions old). And he told me where to go to update the bios on my daughter's computer. That was useful. It's a question I've had for a while when I see people on this forum ask whether someone has updated their bios.