On ebay you can find a device I like called a disk drive 'rack' or carrier. You put it in like a floppy drive, on the other 1/2 you put in any disk drive. Then you can plug in the disk like a floppy and run it anytime you want to look at the drive. This could be something for $14 that would help you to move files from old , hard drive, to a new one $60 for 750gb on amazon. JDMADERA has the disk racks for serial (SATA or parallel) or you can use an external hard drive, or any drive with an external adapter $14. I personally like the reasoning of buying a new drive to put all my files on it. I get a new drive, I copy my old files and test the new drive for a while before I commit to it , and have the chance to sell my old drive while having a backup. Another idea: If many files are text based then zip or RAR them and mail them to yourself. Many mail sites accept 2mb up to 20mb mail attachments. That might handle most of your documents and that way you have them backed up. It's a secondary backup.. you should still have them somewhere else but one site I use has been good to me for 5 years, for free, holding 40mb of stuff. I apoligize if I didn't answer your Q excactly. I'm in a hurry and tried to offer what I could to what I thought I saw in your post.. in a 30 second quick read. Andre

You can "export" your email addresses to a USB drive and "import" them on your new computer File->Export->Address Book->Text File-> using "Browse" find the location of your USB drive. Name your file and follow the steps in the wizard to finish. On your new computer go to File->Import and follow the steps to import the data from your USB drive You can do the same for exporting/importing your Internet Favorites. It is located under File->Export. Just follow the wizard. I have never had any luck moving the actual email files. I am sure there is a way - but every attempt I have made has failed. I know there was a software you could purchase to "back up" OE, and then restore it on a new machine. I didn't want to buy anything though. You could try forwarding the emails (from your old machine) that you want to keep to yourself - then retrieving them on the new machine.

If you wish to slave the hard drive from your old computer to Dad's machine why not use the ribbon cable and power connections for the CD/DVD player temporarily? This way you can copy your data to his drive using Windows Explorer then burn it to a CD or whatever. Just rest the old drive on a box or book beside the case for support during the process. The other option would be to buy an external drive enclosure with IDE connections and install the old drive there. These connect via a USB port Then you have an ideal way to back up your data. These enclosures have come down in price dramatically. As your 'stuff' is professional quality you might buy a known brand enclosure, just a personal thing for me but you do not need to lose that data. I would also recommend one with it's own power supply unless you are confident the new computer has an adequate power supply.

I wouldn't worry about the install disks at all. Someone might want them. As far as the ones with personal info on them, do you have a good strong magnet around the house? Even refrigerator magnets can wipe out data on disks. I remember one guy who came into the store with a bag full of software he bought at a fairground sale. He couldn't get the disks to load. I checked them out and they were partially erased. As I emptied the bag, there were three refrigerator magnets in there advertising the place he bought the software from! I'd run a good strong magnet over the ones with data, then if you really want to be a bit more secure, format the disk and then copy something of no value onto it to overwrite anything that may be on there. Make it much more difficult to recover. You can do this a few disks a night while you're watching tv or something or even while you're surfing.