Remember that if you are using Windows Backup in Windows 7, you should not be using a backup medium smaller than 1GB. CDs are no longer appropriate; you should purchase blank DVDs and write on those. This has nothing to do with Gateway, it has to do with the increased size of a backup. Memorex is also a media that will give you a great deal of 'coasters' (useless burned DVDs/CDs). Honestly, you can buy a 160 GB external HD from TigerDirect.com for $34.99, and that's about what you would pay for a spindle of blank DVDs. Here is a link that might be useful: Tiger Direct HD

Lily09, you will find good things about each of the 3 majors: Pentair, Jandy & Hayward. I prefer Pentair. You will find some PBs prefer a certain manufacturer based on their personal experience with failure of equipment, promptness of service, support they receive, etc. I used one of the other manufacturers originally, but changed because even though the service was excellent I had too many times when service was needed. Others I know in the business have never experienced those problems with the same manufacturer. All of them have some kind of promotional or give back to the PB opportunities, so that can sway a PB to a certain brand. If you are a high enough volume builder, there are some major perks with hooking up with a certain manufacturer. For the most part, follow the advice of your PB. They know best what works for them.

Support has been, or will be dropped for all versions of XP except for service pack 3. However, XP remains my favorite windows version. My wife moved to Vista on her laptop and hated it. She now has Windows 7 and says it is an improvement over Vista. Some day, I plan to move to Windows 7 and skip Vista. This requires a complete clean out of the system - reformat of the disk. I dread that move, and expect some applications and hardware will no longer be compatible. If certain applications become incompatible, I'll resist the move as long as I can. These would be applications that are too expensive for me as a retiree to replace. I have an old finite element analysis program that is no longer compatible. To buy a new version is $16,000 the last time I priced it, so that will not be done unless I land a consulting job that needs it and can pay for it - not likely in my remaining life. If you are having difficulty in finding your pictures, use the "Find" command to search your hard drive. If your disk has been subdivided into logical drives, you may have to search each logical drive. The find comamnd does not need the entire name of the file to find it, just part of the name will do. It will, of course, list all files matching the same fragment. For example, if you searched for all occurences of *.jpg, you'll get every file having extension " jpg", not necessarily an efficent thing to do. Suppose you have the followiong files: 1998 Joey 1.tif 1998 Joey 2.jpg 2000 Joey 1.doc You could locate all these files by searching on "joey" and very likely would not get many extraenous hits. File names that contined the string, joey, would also appear such as jumpjoey.tif . Recommendation: In the future, create folders with meaningful names in which to store your images. That way, you'll know where they are. Folder names such as: Vacation Jun 2000 Year 2001 pic Year 2002 pic 110Canon 111Canon are examples. Tip: Its a good idea when you set up a new computer to set aside a data drive for documnets and images. If you have one hard drive, a logical drive could be created on it. You would have 2 logical drives: one for the system files and the other for your personal files. I have 2 physical hard drives in my computer which becomes a natural thing to do. This separates your data from the system and application disk, and makes for more efficient use fo the "Find" command. On first pass, you need to search only the data drive, and if not found there, search the other drives. System and application files are humungous these days and requires much needless search time.

Hello, Farm boy My husband I are doing the same thing! We've said this is to be our winter project and have it ready next spring. Someone decided to dump their old hot tub in the woods near our neighborhood. I had contemplated for months now on hauling it off because I hate see things like this just sitting in the woods. Then it occurred to me: turn it into a fish pond! We are only partial burying ours (the bottom middle part) and building a frame around the outside. I wanted to completely bury it but our ground is just so hard here. We talked about a pond liner but they are super expensive. So we decided to caulk up the jets and then spray flex seal on top of the caulk to seal it really well. Once we get the bottom middle buried, my husband is going to build a frame from some leftover pallets. And we have talked about doing lattice work all the way around with some small vine plants growing up them. We're also going to make one of the back panels a door so we can store things under it. We're going to do a couple of different kinds of goldfish in ours because they don't get as big as koi. We went to our local mom and pop pet store and they had some free books on how to build, prepare and keep a pond. They also had some on how to keep fish healthy. We also spoke to the owner who used to build ponds and he's the one who suggested using flex seal on the jets. He also said don't use gravel on the bottom like some people do. He said when the fish rest on the bottom in winter, the rocks can give them ulcers and ultimately kill them. I hope this has helped and maybe even given you some ideas. We are really hoping to complete this project and have it ready by next spring. Good luck! Sara