hello, the machine is only 3 years old,yes i did destroy all the data on it after i formatted.i still have the larger drive but it won't read it. last night a neighbor gave me a windows 2000 disc and i formatted the drive again and it worked;it saw the full capacity of the drive and is ready to use, however when i try to bring the second drive with 225 + gigs of data on it it will not see it no matter how i switch things around bios won't read it, so i took it out, the drive i have working is set to master and is the only drive in the pc but bios says it is a secondary slave drive but it is on the primary ide channel and set to master!!everything in bios is set to auto detect drives,but as soon as i connect the other drive as a slave drive and reboot, the computer freezes and gets stuck on the post screen and hangs.funny thing is when i take that drive and put it in the hard drive enclosure that converts regular drives to use with usb and plug it into the computer i am on right now and reboot, windows comes up and says : found new hardware,mass storage usb device,your hardware is installed and ready to use,it even gives me a new drive letter,shows the drive as a western digital drive but... when i click on the drive letter it says please insert a disk into drive j....hmmm

While some updates may include "bells and whistles" many are designed to improve stability and others increase security. That may not be readily apparent unless one reads the "fine print". The unfortunate reality is that folks out there who want to do harm and today a computer owner has to exercise due diligence because in this age of always on/always connected computers your mistakes can impact others. To some degree it's like a car, you have an obligation to maintain the vehicle so that when you step on the brake pedal, the car stops. For the most part a computer virus isn't going to have catastrophic consequences of hitting, say, a pedestrian with a car but there are real costs associated with these things. 80% of all email is spam. Spam that we all are paying for because the hardware and associated costs of the increased traffic; costs that are passed to us in the form of higher fees for Internet access. At the very least: Use anti-virus/anti-malware software. Use a firewall. Even better is to have a physical firewall like a router in additional to a software firewall. Keep your computer updated. The more popular the software, the more likely someone is trying to find flaw they can exploit. Use common sense. Because emails are generally scanned several times, they are an unlikely source of infection BUT any links they contain are NOT scanned. So if your dear friend sends you a message, "Hey, check out this video of a three headed baby." Before you click, think about using Google instead. If there really was a three headed baby, it's probably going to make the evening news. Or before you click on a link in an email from Aunt Millie wonder if you 87-year-old aunt really has a Facebook page. Beware of phishing schemes. Your bank, investment broker, electric company, ISP, etc. is NEVER EVER going to send you an email saying they need information from you. If you are really concerned, call them using a phone number from the phone book or a statement. Think before you click. If you're not sure why you're clicking ok, spend a couple of minutes and look up your problem. Generally somebody, somewhere has asked the same question before.

I am researching the custom vs Ikea with custom doors vs Lowes Kraftmaid cabinets and came across the thread below. I talked to a few custom cabinet builders at a home show today and I am concerned about the warranty for custom as mentioned in the link. I plan to visit one or two and look more closely at the work, how many years they have been in busienss and also read the fine print on each warranty. A friend purchased her cabinets at Home Depot and I think she waited for some kind of semi annual sale or something for that vendor and got a significant discount. Ask the salesperson. Here is a link that might be useful: pro and con list for cabinets

There are some things you can do to improve the speed of your computer. Everyone should do these to keep everything functioning properly. I have a friend who is a software engineer and this is what he has recommended that I do in the past. If anyone needs additional help, let me know and I'll help you out. Also, sorry for the length of this - there may be a few tricks you may be able to use. 1) Scan your computer system for viruses, spyware, and other malware - Spyware and viruses can cause many problems with your computer including slowing down your system, corrupting or erasing data, causing system crashes, or stealing data. These are horrible and can cause irreparable damage to your computer, data, and on-line safety. If you ever access the internet, keeping up to date on your anti-virus software is one of the most important things you can do to extend your computers life, safeguard your information, and prevent identity theft. You can use commercial software such as Norton AntiVirus or McAfee VirusScan, or free software such as Spybot - Search and Destroy. It is recommended to set up an automatic scan to occur at least once a week. 2) Move all unnecessary files to an external hard drive, CD, or DVD - The fewer items you have on your hard drive, the quicker it will be for your computer to locate the files you need on a regular basis. Move pictures, mP3Âs, large databases, and other large files to an external hard drive or CD to free up space and to make it easier and faster for your computer to perform functions. 3) Remove unused programs - Unnecessary programs use up valuable disk space and consume resources, especially if the program automatically runs on startup. Remove these to free up hard drive space and resources - and speed up your computer. How to remove unused programs: Click Start Â> Control Panel Â> Add or Remove Programs Select the program to remove You may have to restart your computer after removing a program. I usually do this after I have removed every program I intend to remove, instead of doing them one at a time. 4) Remove autostart programs - Many programs are designed to automatically start when the computer boots up. This sucks up your computerÂs processing power and slows it down tremendously. Many times you donÂt even want/need the program to constantly run in the background. Removing the program from your start up will improve your computerÂs performance. A good utility to see what is running at start up (and at other times) is AutoRuns, which is a free Microsoft product. It does not need to be installed - just download, then run it (execute it). It will display everything that starts automatically, the order it starts, where the file is located and more. How to remove autostart programs: Click Start Â> Run Â> type msconfig Â> Click OK Select Startup Tab Â> this displays a list of programs that run on startup Uncheck those you donÂt want to run on startup (do a Google search to identify those you arenÂt familiar with, or check out sysinfo.org). The programs you unchecked will not load the next startup and your computer will start faster next time. You can still run the programs by starting them as normal. 5) Turn off programs you arenÂt using - If all you are doing is checking your e-mail you probably donÂt need 5-10 applications running. Turn off programs that constantly run in the background, and close other programs when you have finished with them. This will free up processing power for other applications and your computer will perform faster. 6) Clean up Disk Space with the Disk Cleanup Tool - Freeing space on your hard drive will improve your computerÂs performance. The Disk Cleanup tool helps you do that by identifying files that you can safely delete, then enabling you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files. This is a great way to remove your temporary internet files and other data that just takes up space. How to clean up disk space: Click Start Â> All Programs Â> Accessories Â> System Tools Â> Disk Cleanup. or Open My Computer Â> right-click Local Disk Â> and then click Properties. Select which files you want to delete. You may have to do this for each drive if you have more than one hard drive. The system will spend a few minutes analyzing how much space will be saved. Click run. The process will take a few minutes. 7) Run Scandisk or Check Disk to check your hard drive for errors - Scandisk is a Windows utility which you can use to scan your hard disk for errors caused by improper shut-downs, viruses, and other problems. It can also clean your hard drive of the miscellaneous errors caused by software conflicts. Using Scandisk will help you check the integrity of a computer hard drive drive to help prevent issues with your computer data. It can also help isolate and correct errors that slow down your computer. How to run Scandisk: Close all applications and programs and turn off your screensaver Click Start Â> Run Â> type in: scandisk You will have an option of choosing a "standard" or a "thorough" scandisk. If you have never done a scandisk before, choose the "thorough" option. Be prepared to wait this may take awhile! Check Disk: Accoring to Wikipedia, ScanDisk is similar to Check Disk. How to run Check Disk: Click Start Â> Run Â> type in: chkdsk To automatically fix any errors that are found, Type "chkdsk /F" (note space). You must restart your computer for it to run Again, this may take awhile! 8) Defrag your hard drive - Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. Data on your hard drive gets fragmented the more often you install new programs, delete data, and move data to new folders and locations. This causes data to be broken up (fragmented) and stored in different locations. When this happens, your computerÂs performance slows down because it has to search in more places to retrieve the data. Run a system defrag to arrange your files better so your PC can access them faster, which will increase your computerÂs speed and performance. If it has been awhile since you have done this, you may need to perform a system defrag several times to gain full benefit. I like to run a system defrag about once a month on my home computer. I run it more often at work because I deal with large databases. How to run a system defrag: Click Start Â> All Programs Â> Accessories Â> System Tools Â> Disk Defragmenter. In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment, and then click the Analyze button. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives. Keep in mind, this process can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. If it takes a few hours that means your disk is highly fragmented and you will probably want to run a system defrag several times until a defrag completes in just a few minutes. 9) Install additional RAM (Memory)- The amount of RAM in your computer has a direct impact on your computerÂs processing speed. The larger your computerÂs RAM, the quicker it is able to perform certain functions. If you donÂt have enough RAM, your computer will use temporary disk space instead (virtual memory), which will substantially slow down performance. How much RAM do you need? Computers running Windows XP need a minimum of 256MB and 512MB is recommended. If you use a photo editing program like PhotoShop, play graphic intensive computer games, or if you often have several programs open simultaneously you will need more. I have 512MB one a laptop, and 2GB on a new computer. How to check the size of your computerÂs RAM: go to Start  > Control Panel Â> System. It will be shown on the bottom of the page. How to upgrade your RAM (memory): Each computer has a different method for upgrading your memory, so I recommend reading your user manual, look at the memory upgrade instructions by Microsoft, or doing a Google search for a user forum where you can find instructions for your model computer. In most cases, it only involves accessing the area where the RAM is located and clicking it into place. I added RAM to my laptop, and the process involved removing 4 screws, inserting the new stick of RAM, and starting the computer. It was extremely simple, and something anyone can do (keep in mind, however, it may be more difficult depending on your computer setup). After adding additional RAM, my laptop seemed almost new again. How much does RAM cost? The RAM for my computer was only $30 (including shipping), and it was well worth the expense. Depending on where you purchase the RAM, you should expect to spend anywhere from $20-100, depending on the type of RAM you buy. I found a great deal on a memory stick on eBay and saved over 50%. Another great place to find inexpensive computer components is TigerDirect.com. Using these tips, I was able to extend the life of one of my computers. The biggest difference maker was upgrading the RAM. The other actions - performing anti-virus scans, system defrags, and removing unnecessary files, are good things to do on a regular basis and will help your computer maintain its performance. They will make your computer run smoother and faster, and possibly last longer.