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.

I may be wrong, but I think you can only use external drives as main drives if they're SCSI or SATA. If you're dealing with USB devices, they're too slow. Some programs will not install on external drives. I may be misreading Ravencajun's last sentence. If you're looking for an external drive, you want to make sure you get something that is a portable drive. It would probably include all the cables. For a laptop replacement drive, you don't need the cables. What is probably the easiest way to upgrade a laptop hard drive is to get one of these EZupgrade enclosures with a drive. The nice thing about the enclosure is that it will work for either SATA or ATA. It includes software so that you can basically do the image and restore in one step, then just swap drives. Since your laptop is 5 years old and had a 6 gb drive to start, it's probably ATA/IDE/EIDE rather than SATA. You could get something like this with the EZ upgrade for less than $100. You'd put the new drive in the enclosure, run the software to clone the drive, turn everything off, pull the current drive, put in the new one and if all goes well, you can just start right up.

Is it an HP? My son put 6 new hard drives in his HP laptop and they put in multiple motherboards in a 2 year period. It was a lemon from day one and I had to fight tooth and nail to get them to completely replace the computer. I kept escalating until they ran out of people to send me to - had a record of every call and the resulting lack of follow-up. I know every computer mfg has customers who love them and those who hate them. None of them are a bargain in the customer service arena as far as I'm concerned.

If you have access to a design engineering office, see if they have anyone who works with 'strain gages'. Strain gage technicians and engineeres routinely solder tiny conections, sometimes under a low power microscope. A special soldering gun is used. Make sure that the soldering gun is electrically isolated and grounded to preclude imparting a damaging charge to the pins. (I am trained to apply strain gages.) The next source is an engineering college that offers strain gage application courses. There will be experts among the staff. A third source is a solid state chip design group. They may have access to specialized equipment. However, at this writing, I have little hope that you can recover the data. It all depends on the damage and where the breaks are. The damage can extend into the packaging. If I understand thumb drives, I think there is an internal, very small 'keep alive' battery that maintains the state of the memory junctions. If this battery is damaged or the connections to it interrupted, then all data is lost. If the 'die' (chip) has been cracked or over strained, then it is lost. This damage can not be seen as it will under the potting compound. If the leads have been broken flush with the packaging (potting) material, then there is little hope in making a solder connection. Before you give up, examine the thumb drive under a low power (10 to 20x) inspection microscope. Look at the leads. Hopefully, these are not broken, but misshapen.