Here is a nice graphical tutorial on how to do what bpgreen did with the computer for those who might wish to try it. I might have to consider that as I now have 2 physical drives both with 2 partitions on them. Interesting, thanks for posting that info.

The easiest way to do it is to get a drive image software program and image your existing drive to your backup device. Then take the existing drive out, put the new drive in and use the imaging software to restore the contents to the new drive. Be careful when you restore from the image to the new drive. Some imaging programs require a parameter in order to use more space than the old drive used. The best known drive imaging program is probably Norton Ghost. Another well known product is Acronis True Image. There are others out there as well. I used Drive Image from Terabyte Unlimited to upgrade my laptop to a larger drive.

Raven - I have one of my posts that got eaten by goblins - and one of your posts that is missing from this thread. I will paste them both here - for the sake of keeping the integrity of the thread. Let me know if this is what was missing that you posted (or did more disappear) Here's my missing post: Damcoy - I'm always forgetting to do a google search. Raven - it was an OEM drive from Dell - no instructions. I vaguely recall that I'd want to format in NTFS and not FAT32 - though I don't recall what each of those are. When i first booted up my pc it did see the new hard drive - but I haven't known how to find it again. It seems to be suggesting that it's being labelled as a canon something or other. I don't know what that means to go into the boot menu at start up to see how it's listed. It did not give me an option of which to boot to - of course there's no operating drive on the second drive (at least I guess there's not since I didn't put one there). I also don't know how to back up my existing drive - which is part of what I want the second drive for. I'd like to back up my programs (and drivers? how would I do that) - perhaps on one partition. And have one or more partitions for files - like video, picture, music, data (word files, emails, etc, saved pages from the web?). So again, how do I go into the boot menu and see how they're listed? There is a difference in size - the second drive is 1/5TB =- the first is 500 GB. How could I mess up my existing original drive? by reformatting it? seems i have to have a place to back it up to before i back it up - I guess I could back it up on my external 640GB hard drive. Thanks. Lynn. ------------------------------- And here's the one from you that was emailed to me: I would use an imaging program and make a full copy of your existing drive to your external hard drive so that you have it should something go wrong. There are good free imaging programs, for those with vista and windows 7 there is now a built in imaging feature. On my computer as soon as it starts to boot up it flashes up and says to enter the boot menu hit esc, I just keep tapping it so I am sure I hit it at the right time, your computer may be different this is not uniform on all computers. Once you get into that area you will see the drives listed, you can choose which one to boot to and what order. I would do some research on what you are wanting to accomplish. I did a lot of reading and researching before I did mine and it really paid off. One thing I had not expected was for the SATA cable to come loose from the mother board after it was all set up, scared the you know what out of me! Luckily I have a see through case and saw the cable dangling. (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php ) CopyWipe free imaging program (http://dottech.org/featured/6194 ) 8 free software to image/backup/ghost your computer (free alternatives to Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost, etc.). ---------------------------------------------------- It lookslike some of your post didn't get copied and pasted intact - but it's mostly there. Or was there more than this? Thanks. Lynn. PS - I'm on my way out for the evening (and tomorrow's a day trip that could turn into all day) - so I don't know if I can get to this in the next day or two - as eager as I am to do so)

chas, keep in mind that a PC is more like a light bulb than like an old car. For an old car, it starts running not so well and accumulates minor problems that become major ones. An old light bulb works until it doesn't work at all. Old PCs are more like old light bulbs. Everyone has their own views but I never put money into old PCs. They're old PCs and when one problem gets fixed, another won't be far behind. If you aren't ready to proactively replace what you have, then just keep using it with Win 7. Be sure to have a top-rated security product active and current and be sure to back up any important files you don't want to lose. If you want to be careful, do any person business stuff using the other PC. But I wouldn't worry about it.