Hi, Mikie. Thanks. I guess I will look for a 1.5TB drive (unless I don't find any with very good reviews - I know I've seen some 1 TB drives that get great reviews for around $100). I know I have one open sata port (I did have my computer open last week to take my Tivo original hard drive and copy it to a new 1TB hard drive - with all the snafus this 1- 1/2 hr. project took 8 hours on Saturday - and on and off all Sunday to complete). There is definitely a bay for a second hard drive. I had 2 sata ports but just added an esata cable so I'm using one of those now. I definitely don't have such huge files (maybe 10-15GB at most for a long high-def movie), so I'll look into partitioning the drive (which is an intimidating idea now, but I'll work up to it). I'm not sure what you mean by break-away covers. But this computer comes with an empty slot in front where a firewire port can be. I think this is what you mean by does the faceplate have provisions for it. I've looked through Dell forums. I'm copying the link here: http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/18748278.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=04&s=bsd&PageIndex=1 It's amazing that for over a year folks have been trying to add this front firewire port after the face - and most of them cannot get a straight answer from Dell. The variety of responses - including it can't be done, it can only be added to the rear, a suggestion of different needed parts - and then perhaps one answer that seems right - but they got the part number wrong and it took the woman 30 minutes to find the information out. Anyway, I've read through it several times bc. it all seems to unclear. I wish I could have read that several people did the same thing and it worked. But people had different solutions. I think I'll call Dell parts and ask about this one: Part #J4975 ($32.99): * IEEE 1394 PCI Card (all internal cables included) for Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop * One end has FireWire port that will be accessible on front of computer (i.e., via the existing slot) * The other end is the PCI Card (which connects to the motherboard) and also has three additional FireWire ports accessible on back of computer. * Internal cables (included with purchase) connect the two ends. * All four FireWire ports have 6-pin heads. But even that part number is wrong - it's supposed to be Y4975. It sounds like the right thing to me. Then I can just plug in my Lego parts. Dell support is just so uninformed. Back to the hard drive, do I need to get cables as well as the drive? I'm sure I need 1 or 2 cables to connect the drive to my computer - and I'm asking in case that answer is more clear. Thanks. Lynn. PS - I'm not mechanical - but I'm determined to learn.

Consumer Reports recommends these laptops: Apple Macbook Pro 15 inches (good battery life & support), Lenovo Thinkpad T60 (good battery life), Toshiba Satellite A135-S4427 (good value) and these for desktop replacements: Apple Macbook Pro 17 inches and Toshiba Satellite P205-S6287. They also recommend these desktops: (for good value) Dell Inspiron 531; HP Pavillion Slimline s3000y and Dell Inspiron 530; (for reliability and support) Apple iMac 20-inches. If you can find them locally, that might be convince them. Number-of-repair information for latops shows that most brands are about the same. Sony is top listed in this area. The rest (Lenovo, Compaq, Dell, Toshiba, Apple, Gateway and HP) follow it with not that much difference between them. For desktops, Apple has the least repairs, followed by the rest (Sony, Dell, Lenovo, Compaq, Emachines, HP) & Gateway (currently being purchased by Acer) as the worst. You can also check other magazines like PC World but they lack frequency/number of repair information about the products. So a PC recommended by PC World may be a good product but you would not know if it requires repairs. I suspect that your parents will probably feel better hearing that CR recommended the PCs listed above. Good luck Lucygoose, Luis

Hello again nice people, I have a question. Since Zep has led me through so many steps and has helped me clean up some of the junk on my computer my question is this. What will the results be if I can find no way to get Java downloaded? Is it absolutely necessary that Java be on the computer for things to work right. I see no results from NOT having it, other than not being to play some games, I play most any game I want without any trouble, most of them very graphic. I still need to delete the Firefox Beta version and keep the right version, but I've got to straightened out the shortcut Icons on my desktop, they're both intertwined. Other than that I don't seem to be having any problems. I don't know if there is something else on the Hijack list that needs to be addressed, Zep didn't say so I assume that there is not. I did get the problem with Incredimail straightened out. That also was a register error. After today I am headed for hopefully a wonderful trip to Yellowstone National Park. I will check on this thread as soon as I get back to see what you think about leaving well enough alone. Thanks again for your time and sharing your knowledge.

Thanks Zep. I'm quite willing to learn the Mac system and DH knows next to nothing about either. He needs little cheat sheets for each thing he wants to do. LOL! Not really concerned about file compatibilities -- I don't think. :-)) I'd probably put Open Office on the new one rather than buying another MS Office Suite. He won't do a lot of (like any) word processing and I understand anything I might create in OO will be viewable in MSO. If I were in need of editing then I'd C+P said info into a new Office Doc on my own 'puter and carry on. Might happen once a year. What I do not want is a problematical OS that I'm constantly running to fix so he can do something inane like play crib on Yahoo. I've made it a practice to avoid all MS upgrades for a considerable length of time before installing. It simply isn't worth the headaches and time involved. All that said perhaps a wiser, though possibly difficult, move would be to install my XP OS on the new laptop and buy Vista to install on my machine. I have to run thru some of the video info on Vista but I'm thinking I'd be the person that would be most likely to use (some of) the *bells and whistles* and he'd be more comfy with an interface that had some familiarity. Problem(s) arise in buying a laptop/notebook sans OS or with OS and then uninstalling / reinstalling . . . blah blah. Hmmm If I upgrade (can this be done?) to Vista on my XP machine, can I install my present XP system on the laptop? I have a gig of RAM now so would need to upgrade to 2 at least. I'll run the compatibility test but think most everything else should work. Have 2 80 Gig HD's, one of which is partitioned to run W'98 (cause I had games that hadn't yet had patches developed that I like to play). That was two plus years ago and now there are patches avail so likely this is no longer a concern. Lots of head scratching! :-)) Pleased to hear any shared thots. Thanks a bunch for the reply. Holly