I am always amazed when people say they have loads of photos or music that they do not want to lose or cannot replace yet have never backed up these valuables. If your hard drive fails tomorrow you have a very real problem. You are not alone in this and I am not trying to be mean spirited but if you fail to look after you and your possessions then who will? For less than $50 you can buy a name brand DVD-RW and for under $20 you can buy 100 blank DVDs. You can buy a lesser amount of blanks of course, that is a choice you can make. The DVD will come with software you install to use it. Or if you already have blank CDs you could use those in the DVD burner. If you back some of that stuff up and remove it from this computer it may well run faster because you will have more free space on the hard drive for the swap file to work better. Does your activity light come on frequently and stay on for long periods? If so this is an indication the swap file is have a problem. Then if you really want to get carried away you can visit Big Lots where they have (or did recently in the Buffalo, NY store) CD or DVD labels and the software to create your own labels for $10 or $11. Another option would be to install this hard drive as a slave in the new computer you intend to buy. You would need to check that there are compatible data connections in the new computer. Older hard drives are IDE or ATA but the newer and faster technology is SATA.

Certainly Open Office is a viable alternative to Microsoft Office depending on your needs because the two platforms are not 100% compatible. Certainly you can try Open Office and see if it meets your needs. I don't know about Quicken but I would imagine there is some kind of "export" feature. Whether you use that in a newer version of Quicken or move on, is up to your. I hear good things about Mint (.com) but haven't used it personally. Microsoft has discontinued Money.

A basic Google search using the keywords "Kindle forum" (sans quotes) revealed many instances of Kindle forums, both Amazon based and independent, which may be a better place to research or ask your Kindle question. At those forums members' participation is dedicated to the unit, and they should be more prepared to answer any question pertaining to it. DA

Here are 2 I have read about over time. Downloaded Coffee Cup a few times but never installed as I still have the free ws_ftp95le program from way back. FileZilla Coffee Cup