This problem may occur if the CD recording program from Roxio Easy CD Creator is installed on the computer. I'm only looking at this error----> F:\is not accessible. Incorrect function. Roxio Easy CD Creator------>See if this programs lives in the add/remove program list.... I am assuming that your cd rom drive is in fact writable and you have used it before, and you have also used those blank cd before without a problem.

I reformatted the My Book - which went smoothly. The copied a short video. Again - worked well. Now I'm copying a whole bunch of videos - and it's taking time. I'm copying about 10-15 hours of standard definition tv shows. So far, it's been over an hour. I have no idea how long it will take via USB2 connection. The 30 minute video took less than 5 minutes. I have follow-up questions. I wonder what the best way is to back up these files. I just opened up My Documents and right-clicked one at a time - then chose the option to "send to" and selected drive e: my book. I'm sure there's a better way to do this, but I don't know what it is. I tried to highlight more than one file at a time (using the shift key) - but it didn't seem to want to let me highlight more than one at a time. I also wonder if I send a file to MY Book - does that mean it's moved to My Book and the original isn't on my PC - or is it copied there? Raven - I know I should know this by now, but I don't. How do I find my firefox profiles and bookmarks files so I can copy them to the external drive? Lastly, is there a way to copy files to the external drive in such a way that I can get prompted if the file already exists? so I don't make a copy and have 2 copies in there? with many files (like pictures), I may get a prompt that says the file already exists - should I overwrite it or skip. Is there anything like that when copying files to the external drive? At some point, should I bite the bullet and buy a software program to do this. Western Digital tries to give trial periods for the following software : Memeo Autobackup, Memeo Autosync. Any reason to get these? Or any other software? Also, when I reformatted the drive, it wiped the drive clean. Is there anything (drivers, software?) I would need to download from Western Digital (to replace anything I might have erased). I know that the proprietary software that's sometimes loaded with these things (like cameras, printers) may not be necessary at all. Thanks. Lynn.

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.

Now even I had to look up an acronym - SIL. ;-) Ok, so you have MS Works XLR & WPS files. The problems you are having - or going to have - is that Works is old, and the Office XP Pro your SIL gave you is also old, being actually Office 2002, version 10 of Office. If you don't have too many files, I think your best bet is to try an online file converter. Zamzar claims to be able to open and convert Works files. http://www.zamzar.com/ Save : XLR (spreadsheet) files to xlsx WPS (word) files to docx If you don't want to buy a new version of MS Office, try installing LibreOffice - the newer version of OpenOffice - and it will open xlsx and docx files [ If you want to stick with your SIL's MS Office XP Pro, then convert those files to xls & doc files, respectively. That version of Office is very old though. ] There are other ways of handling this, but probably if you you're going to try anything else, your best bet would be buy MS Works off Ebay or Amazon for $10 or so, open and convert all the files. Btw, you can't even open a .doc file in Office XP Pro ?? That's not a good sign - probably a sign of corruption. Btw #2 - When you say you can't open files, I take it they are on your current hard drive, and not within some compressed backup folder. That is, not within a zip file or the like. Re your backup cds : Can you load one of them, then rummage around in their files and tell us what you find ? (as in, names of files and extensions ?) Most likely they are proprietary formats, but if we know what they are, we could perhaps tell you how to retrieve them. Last, anyway you can get the hard drive back from the repair service ? Probably not, but it would be a second source of backup files. Let us know how it all works out.