Grandms - I checked hidden icons and it wasn't there. So I just did it by turning off the computer. Canibus - since I have an on/off switch, if I turn that off, is it sufficient to do that first - then disconnect the esata cable? I did unplug it - but may have turned it off, disconnected from pc, and then unplugged power. These are such important things - the order of shut down and disconnection. It's something I never thought about until very recently - and several people I've talked to since had no idea about the safely remove hardware button - or the order of disconnecting,powering down an external drive. The people I talked to just unplugged the drive - and so far they've been very, very lucky. When I reconnect the ext. drive, just want to be sure I have the order correct: computer off connect external drive to power adapter and plug it in connect esata (or usb) cable to computer turn on the hard drive (or do I turn it on before connecting to pc?) turn on the computer I'm asking bc. I just got an external drive for my daughter's computer and the instructions don't say anything about whether the computer has to be off or on before connecting the ext. drive. Thanks. Lynn.

If you buy a used computer its always best to do a clean install of the OS and then reload what programs you want to run... You can still run some of the programs from your old hard drive by opening the folder of the program and clicking to run its executable file (.exe). Some will work, some won't, but none will continue to have an icon on your desktop unless and until you create a shortcut for it. .. I work with computers ALL the time. When you install a program it puts files in unseen folders as well as its main folder within Programs. It also puts certain information into bios and its from there that the program told to load and be prepared to launch.

Thank you all for your help. I'm looking at the Acronis program and I'm wondering if there is advantage of buying it from the site cboy mentioned rather than downloading it from the Acronis site. Maybe they send a hard copy of a users guide book, etc.? Other than cost, that is. I see that I can get a free 15 day trial by down loading from Acronis. I have another ?. As I said I bought a WD My Book Essential Edition external drive. I tried just a few minutes ago to back up my Documents & Settings folder to it. I get the following message: "You have either run out of space, or the back up file (.bkf) is too large for this disk. Note: If this disk is formatted with FAT32, the maximum possible size for the backup file is limited to 4GB, The backup operation will stop." Then this "End of Media encountered while backing up to non-removable media" What am I doing wrong? I'm using XP, 160GB internal HD, 320GB external HD

I would at least delete the files you have put on it and be sure to empty the recycle bin. They may take offense if you totally wiped out the hard drive, but if you have the recovery discs you can wipe the drive them reinstall from those discs to return it to the way it was when you got it. I have known of people who bought a refurb pc that still had a lot of files from previous owners. So you never know.