Thank you all for answering. owbist, I downloaded a program called HDD Health (recommended by Kim Komando) and that is what is giving me the Attribute seek error message. It was giving me the message about the Temp Critical and with the dust that was there, I'm sure I was headed for a crash. It said the temp ws 48 degrees celcius, so I feel very lucky that HDD Health caught it. I haven't had that message since I cleaned it out. I will try PC Pitstop when I finish here. I did a Balarc Advisor report and all it says about the hard drive is "160.04 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity",so I have to do a little research to find out what make it is. I do have the case up off the floor sitting on my desk top, but it still was very dusty. It has plenty of free space around it for ventilation. I really don't want to replace the whole set up, because this has every thing I need except smaller size and still feels like a "new" one to me, except I have a bulky 17" CRT monitor. Until now I have had zero problems with it. I think I bought it in 2004, so it isn't that old, at least for me, and it has everything most of the new ones have. I have 135 GB free out of the 160. How do I backup my bookmarks and address book? I use Firefox and Outlook Express. cboy,I think cloning to a new hard drive is what I want to do, so I might be back to ask how to do that. Thanks again

Dee can - Please DO NOT trigger a Format. It deletes everything on the drive (including Windows). If you reformat your PC's hard drive, it'll be useless to you and won't start again until a new operating system installation is done. It shouldn't be something you need to do. raven - I disagree with your suggestion about the advisability of having a HDD image. Use of same would seem to be well beyond the ability of most people who visit this forum. To avoid problems and inconvenience, my first suggestion is that everything important should be backed up and, correspondingly, unimportant files needn't be backed up. Many users have nothing but unimportant files. A simple emailer and web surfer likely has nothing that needs to be backed up. My second suggestion is to avoid problems by using proper tools and practices. (Many of the tools and practices I've seen recommended in various threads in this forum I don't agree with) My third suggestion - if a problem is encountered that the user doesn't know how to deal with, find a service provider or someone knowledgeable to help you. For "seasoned citizens", younger family members may be useful for this. Write down on a piece of paper (yes, a piece of paper) the programs you use and the obscure websites you like and have bookmarked. Other than important data files (photos, music, correspondence), EVERYTHING ELSE on your PC can be reinstalled, re-downloaded, and otherwise replaced. If your PC is old, struggling, or otherwise deserving of a proper burial, buy a new one. They're cheaper than ever, and old your old PC may not be worth the cost or effort to resuscitate. Good luck to all. With a first rate antivirus program, all that's left for you to do is to know where you go and know what you open. With that and absent being very unlucky, you won't have any problems.

What was the name of the virus? What did you use to remove it? Instructions for Windows 7 Open Computer or Windows Explorer and press the Alt key. Select Tools > Folder Options > and click the View tab Under Advanced settings uncheck Hide empty drives in the Computer folder. Click OK.

As it happens, things have changed. The technician Dell sent came with the replacement hard drive (with pre-installed XP and drivers). He installed it - booted - and the same hard drive warning occurred. Turns out it was my second internal hard drive (that I use for data) that was going bad. It was a good thing I already had the 2TB replacement. So he put the 2TB drive in - returned my original hard drive - and all functioned well - no hard drive error messages. Now I do have work ahead of me - but this changes the nature of it. Much better scenario - but still requires thinking through. There are probably just a few video files on the second internal hard drive that I don't have copies of. I think they're still accessible - so I will either get a docking station - or better yet an enclosure (since I will need one anyway - as I'll describe later) to put it in - and see if I can transfer those video files to my new 2TB internal drive. I think it makes sense to test that drive to see what's wrong with it - if it's repairable by Windows XP (I think if I run chkdsk there are possibilities to repair some damage?). Should I do this? Or are there other methods to safely test out the health of my hard drive? It is also a Western Digital. The timing of the hard drive failure is now making more sense. I had spent the previous weekend backing up lots of data files onto this second internal 1.5 TB hard drive. I think some of those transferred Tivo files might be problematic. (I say that for 2 reasons - when I've tried to defrag the hard drive, I recall a few files that couldn't be defragged - and while it was hard to see the path, I think they were the Tivo videos. Also, there were a few Tivo videos that failed to work properly when I tried to run VideoRedo to remove commercials. Some just seemed to be bad files - of course, I don't recall which those ones were - but it makes me wonder if it's the sources of the problem on that second hard drive.) Next step is call Dell - I bought that second hard drive from them 1 1/2 yrs ago. It has a 3 yr warranty. I'm not sure if the warranty will be honored by Dell or Western Digital (the brand of drive). So I figure I'll be getting a replacement 1.5 TB hard drive - which I can either install internally - use it as program drive or data drive. I can use the original 500GB drive externally. Or maybe I should keep it the way it is now. Original 500GB internal hard drive, second 2 TB internal hard drive - and put the replacement 1.5 TB hard drive in an enclosure and use for back-ups. One reason I'd like to use the 2TB drive as a program/boot drive (or master drive - I'm not sure of the language) is bc. it's supposed to be a faster drive - Western Digital Black Caviar 2TB drive - 7200rpm and 64MB Cache that was a bit pricier, but I thought it was worth it for quality and speed. It's this one: http://www.amazon.co...ref=oss_product (although I paid less than the price listed online) I'm new enough at all this that I don't understand everything about hard drive speed. I think that a larger drive can potentially slow things down a bit as it has to work to see date over a larger area/amount of data - but that the 7200rpm and 64MB cache will offer more speed - and the reviews suggest this thing is fast. I'd love any guidance in weighing these factors as I decide which to make the primary drive. I also want to clarify what to do with this drive. I don't know how to partition. And if I did, how large a partition should I create on this 2TB drive - if it were to hold the operating systems and programs? I don't know how much room that takes - and how to be sure to take the appropriate sections of my original drive to place into this partition. I can figure out what size each portion of my original hard drive is? I just don't know which folders go into the partition for programs/software? I don't want to leave any out - and I'm concerned I will miss some folders bc. I do not recognize what they are. If I partition the drive, I gather I don't clone it - but do it in sections. I also don't know if I should format it first. Or partition first. Disk management is fairly new to me although I did format a couple of drives. I didn't get into partitions and copying from one drive to another. Does it make sense to use this 2TB drive (which I bought for it's speed and good functioning) as the main drive? If so, I don't know the order of operations? Clone my original drive to this drive? Format and partition first (in which case I'll need to know how to get the proper system files vs. data files into the right partitions). I think I know that if I make this 2TB the master, I have to either switch the cables - but since I think they won't stretch to the second hard drive bay, I'll probably have to swap them. I am so relieved not to have lost my original drive. Although it consumed the better part of last weekend, I did learn plenty - and feel more confident cutting my "recovery" teeth on recovering data from the bad second drive which only has some video at stake. Just as a reminder my original drive has about 350GB data. Thanks everyone. Lynn. PS - I did learn a couple of important things from this technician. First, he updated the bios in my computer (which was several versions old). And he told me where to go to update the bios on my daughter's computer. That was useful. It's a question I've had for a while when I see people on this forum ask whether someone has updated their bios.