This might help, see link below: I didn't get your Operating System so I guessed it was XP. Are your CD/DVD disks in good shape? Any scratches? It's a good idea to clean them if they've been sitting around for awhile sometimes they get a film built up on them. If they are scratched then you can order a new set from HP for a small fee. Do this if nothing else works. I signed up for Garden Web awhile ago but really don't come around to often. I thought I'd stop by. I've been gardening for decades and helping out on Cnet for a little over a year, on there help forums. I hope this helps and that the link shows up. Here is a link that might be useful: Recover computer at HP

This is going to be an interesting issue. Here's why. You are going to have to unplug the old drive from the inside because the bios is going to see that it is there when you are reloading Windows. It doesn't look at the current install that you have. First you need to unplug the old internal CDROM. Second, start up the computer and go into the "Setup" menu, with the external drive plugged in. As soon as you start the computer, there should be some Compaq screen that pops up and tells you to push F10 or something like that to get into the setup screens or what some call the "Bios." The bios is software that runs on your motherboard and allows access to different startup and hardware aspects in your system. You need to go under the startup sequence menu and look to see if the external drive is recognized. If it is you can load Windows from that drive. If not, let me know the exact make and model of the external drive and I can see what your options are.

Success! I love you people! Spent the past hour or two checking out your recommendations and printing out each step/window so I'd know where I'd been! DayLily, Frankly I don't know if I have a sound card or on-board sound. I can't find any reference to answer those questions (that I can interpret anyway) from running Belarc Advisor. I'd rather buy another computer than open up mine! Moths and dust would undoubtedly fly out! :) I appreciate your input. Thank you. Luis, My speakers are connected directly to my monitor. Since I didn't want to unplug a bunch of things and lug either my monitor and speakers into the other room or disconnect my husband's computer and bring it in here, I decided to check out the Control Panel's Sounds and Audio Devices. The first tab (Volume) had 'Mute' checked! Couldn't believe it. I thought I'd gone into every nook and cranny by now! I unchecked 'Mute' and really did look everywhere in that window this time. Also, under Advanced Audio Properties > Speakers, I changed the Speaker Setup from 'Monitor stereo speakers' to 'Desktop stereo speakers.' (Wouldn't have done that except the latter had pictures that shows my setup. Ha.) One or more of those actions must have done the trick. 'Thanks' is not adequate enough! But I do thank you so much Owbist, I went everywhere you suggested. I had been in some of those 'places' before, but I guess just not where to fix the problem. I'd seen those yellow exclamation marks, (...System Properties > Device Manager > Sound...), but when I'd click on one of the yellow jobbers > Unknown device Properties > DRIVER TAB > Driver Details or Update Driver, I'd get some kind of error message when I'd try to update a driver. It wasn't until I went to the GENERAL TAB and then REINSTALL DRIVER that worked to banish the yellows! Wow! Thanks! Raven, If you've read this novel this far, you were probably right about the sound being muted and I just hadn't seen that particular window before, although I'd seen the volume window somewhere in my earlier travels and no mute boxes were checked and I'd raised the volume sliders up higher. Several times prior, I'd moved the couch, gotten out my flashlight and trusty magnifying glass and unplugged, re-plugged, and deciphered the almost invisible icons on my monitor, speakers, and computer backside. :) Thank you. Well, folks, before I posted this, I listened to 3 songs and did a Hallelujah! I'm thrilled. And it's all because of you. I'm going to bed now. Hope I never have to travel in this particular labyrinth again! Good night. Kat

@anne_ct "That maybe what the book says...but I found the errant G: drive nicely tucked at the bottom of the "My Pictures" folder under "Libraries"." I don't want to get too sidetracked here, but the Libraries are essentially folders full of shortcuts. They are not the actual files, folders, or drives, but references to their real locations only. You could put another computer on the network inside say, Libraries/Pictures, but that computer is not actually in Pictures. As well, if you delete it there, it does not delete the actual file, folder, drive, or computer that's being referenced. To test, see if you can drag a D: drive, or your CD drive into your actual Pictures directory. You can't - indeed it's impossible. But you can drop it as a shortcut into anything that's in Libraries, although it doesn't explicitly say that it's just a shortcut. See : Windows 7 Libraries: Frequently Asked Questions