Checklist for Reformatting

[Nancy Allison]

I've just done a web search for "checklist for reformatting hard drive" and I have not found anything like what I'm looking for.

I work from home and don't have an IT department to rely on. Even after I run SpyBot, Counterspy, Norton, and AdAware, and even after I did a partial reinstallation of XP, my computer is still as slow as cold molasses.

It's time to reformat my hard drive, but despite saving almost everything to an external HP Personal media drive, I'm scared to death that I will lose key data. Here's the backup checklist that I've come up with so far:

1. Export Contacts, Calendar, and Mail from Outlook, and back up the exported files.

2. Export Favorites from IE and back up.

3. Back up all known data files.

4. Back up all downloaded executables that I will need to reinstall software.

From your collective wisdom (and painful experiences) -- What hidden or obscure files am I not thinking of?

Honestly, I could not find an existing checklist for personal computers. If there is one, please point me to it. If there isn't, I'll create one from what I learn here and send it to anyone who'd like to have it.

Thank you for your help. I am sick to death of having to take a nap while waiting for a new application to open . . .

--Nancy

[Evans, Diane L (Rosetta)]

Post by Nancy Allison
It's time to reformat my hard drive,

Stop! Not yet! Check the following:

1. How much RAM does your computer have? You can significantly speed
up an over-loaded computer by adding memory. It is relatively cheap
($50 or so) and easy to install.

2. Have you defragged your hard drive? If you have never done this, it
will take several passes, at a few hours each, to get everything back in
order. Do it at night or on a weekend and you will be amazed at how much
you speed up the computer.

3. A good website to check out is: http://www.econsultant.com/. Sanjeev,
the owner of the site, has included many freeware tools that can help
you diagnose computer problems.

Diane Evans
Requirements Analyst
ASQ CSQE
Rosetta Inpharmatics
206-802-6560




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[Nicola Harlow]

Hi Nancy,

Just a quick suggestion (oh, no, another app), try Ccleaner
(http://www.ccleaner.com/) it's great for clearing out all the rubbish
from your machine. I don't know if it'll do any good, but...

Otherwise, best of luck.

Nicola

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+n.harlow=***@lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+n.harlow=***@lists.techwr-l.com] On
Behalf Of Nancy Allison
Sent: 26 March 2008 15:13
To: techwr-***@lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: Checklist for Reformatting

I've just done a web search for "checklist for reformatting hard drive"
and I have not found anything like what I'm looking for.

I work from home and don't have an IT department to rely on. Even after
I run SpyBot, Counterspy, Norton, and AdAware, and even after I did a
partial reinstallation of XP, my computer is still as slow as cold
molasses.

It's time to reformat my hard drive, but despite saving almost
everything to an external HP Personal media drive, I'm scared to death
that I will lose key data. Here's the backup checklist that I've come up
with so far:

1. Export Contacts, Calendar, and Mail from Outlook, and back up the
exported files.

2. Export Favorites from IE and back up.

3. Back up all known data files.

4. Back up all downloaded executables that I will need to reinstall
software.

From your collective wisdom (and painful experiences) -- What hidden or

obscure files am I not thinking of?

Honestly, I could not find an existing checklist for personal computers.
If there is one, please point me to it. If there isn't, I'll create one
from what I learn here and send it to anyone who'd like to have it.

Thank you for your help. I am sick to death of having to take a nap
while waiting for a new application to open . . .

--Nancy

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[Gordon McLean]

Install Belarc (before reformatting) and print out the report, that'll give
you a list of everything that will be useful in the future (applications,
reg numbers and so on).

What I backup depends on how much room I have (a 500GB external drive copes
easily though).

Backup:
C:\Windows\fonts
C:\Program Files\ - the entire folder, as many apps store configuration
files there
C:\Documents and Settings\[YOURUSERNAME] - there are MANY hidden folders and
files in there that MAY be useful. I tend to back this up, reformat and,
after a couple of months, delete the backup as I clearly don't need any of
the files (or wait 6 months, a year, whatever you feel comfortable with).

Or if you have room, just back up everything. That way if an application
says "Can't find file..." you can go to your backup and grab it from there.

Of course you still have to re-install everything but at least you'll have
the myriad of downloaded and system created files.

HTH!!

G


-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+gordon.mclean=***@lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+gordon.mclean=***@lists.techwr-l.c
om] On Behalf Of Nancy Allison
Sent: 26 March 2008 15:13
To: techwr-***@lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: Checklist for Reformatting

I've just done a web search for "checklist for reformatting hard drive" and
I have not found anything like what I'm looking for.

I work from home and don't have an IT department to rely on. Even after I
run SpyBot, Counterspy, Norton, and AdAware, and even after I did a partial
reinstallation of XP, my computer is still as slow as cold molasses.

It's time to reformat my hard drive, but despite saving almost everything to
an external HP Personal media drive, I'm scared to death that I will lose
key data. Here's the backup checklist that I've come up with so far:

1. Export Contacts, Calendar, and Mail from Outlook, and back up the
exported files.

2. Export Favorites from IE and back up.

3. Back up all known data files.

4. Back up all downloaded executables that I will need to reinstall
software.

From your collective wisdom (and painful experiences) -- What hidden or

obscure files am I not thinking of?

Honestly, I could not find an existing checklist for personal computers. If
there is one, please point me to it. If there isn't, I'll create one from
what I learn here and send it to anyone who'd like to have it.

Thank you for your help. I am sick to death of having to take a nap while
waiting for a new application to open . . .

--Nancy

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
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[Dan Goldstein]

Belarc has a number of products, of which Belarc Advisor is the popular
freeware. But Belarc's legal statement says, "We do not permit use of
the Belarc Advisor for commercial purposes." Given that Nancy *works*
from home, she should be sure to use one of their commercial products.

Post by Nicola Harlow
-----Original Message-----
From: Gordon McLean
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 12:10 PM
Subject: RE: Checklist for Reformatting
Install Belarc (before reformatting) and print
out the report, that'll give you a list of
everything that will be useful in the future
(applications, reg numbers and so on)...

This message contains confidential information intended only for the use of the addressee(s). If you are not the addressee, or the person responsible for delivering it to the addressee, you are hereby notified that reading, disseminating, distributing, copying, electronic storing or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message by mistake, please notify us, by replying to the sender, and delete the original message immediately thereafter. Thank you.

[Pinkham, Jim]

Nancy, my personal opinion is that Fred Langa's advice is the gold
standard on this subject. You'll have to tweak the reference below to
your situation, but I've tried it and it's very thorough, and I feel
very comfortable if I ever need to get back to square one :)

http://www.langa.com/backups/backups(1).htm.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jim.pinkham=***@lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jim.pinkham=***@lists.techwr-l.com] On
Behalf Of Nancy Allison
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 10:13 AM
To: techwr-***@lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: Checklist for Reformatting

I've just done a web search for "checklist for reformatting hard drive"
and I have not found anything like what I'm looking for.

I work from home and don't have an IT department to rely on. Even after
I run SpyBot, Counterspy, Norton, and AdAware, and even after I did a
partial reinstallation of XP, my computer is still as slow as cold
molasses.

It's time to reformat my hard drive, but despite saving almost
everything to an external HP Personal media drive, I'm scared to death
that I will lose key data. Here's the backup checklist that I've come up
with so far:

1. Export Contacts, Calendar, and Mail from Outlook, and back up the
exported files.

2. Export Favorites from IE and back up.

3. Back up all known data files.

4. Back up all downloaded executables that I will need to reinstall
software.

From your collective wisdom (and painful experiences) -- What hidden or

obscure files am I not thinking of?

Honestly, I could not find an existing checklist for personal computers.
If there is one, please point me to it. If there isn't, I'll create one
from what I learn here and send it to anyone who'd like to have it.

Thank you for your help. I am sick to death of having to take a nap
while waiting for a new application to open . . .

--Nancy

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Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats
or printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista &
2007 Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
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[Pinkham, Jim]

Just to piggyback on Diane's suggestion a bit, Diskkeeper Lite,
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1207, considerably speeds up
the Defrag process and does a very thorough job. The full, paid version
lets you schedule and automate ongoing defrags so everything stays
crisp. XP, if that's what you're running, fragments on a much grander
scale than its predecessors did.

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jim.pinkham=***@lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jim.pinkham=***@lists.techwr-l.com] On
Behalf Of Evans, Diane L (Rosetta)
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 10:47 AM
To: Nancy Allison; techwr-***@lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: RE: Checklist for Reformatting

Post by Nancy Allison
It's time to reformat my hard drive,

Stop! Not yet! Check the following:

1. How much RAM does your computer have? You can significantly speed
up an over-loaded computer by adding memory. It is relatively cheap
($50 or so) and easy to install.

2. Have you defragged your hard drive? If you have never done this, it
will take several passes, at a few hours each, to get everything back in
order. Do it at night or on a weekend and you will be amazed at how much
you speed up the computer.

3. A good website to check out is: http://www.econsultant.com/. Sanjeev,
the owner of the site, has included many freeware tools that can help
you diagnose computer problems.

Diane Evans
Requirements Analyst
ASQ CSQE
Rosetta Inpharmatics
206-802-6560




------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Notice: This e-mail message, together with any attachments, contains
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and in Japan, as Banyu - direct contact information for affiliates is
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[Gordon McLean]

Good catch Dan, cheers!


-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+gordon.mclean=***@lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+gordon.mclean=***@lists.techwr-l.c
om] On Behalf Of Dan Goldstein
Sent: 26 March 2008 16:17
To: techwr-***@lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: RE: Checklist for Reformatting

Belarc has a number of products, of which Belarc Advisor is the popular
freeware. But Belarc's legal statement says, "We do not permit use of the
Belarc Advisor for commercial purposes." Given that Nancy *works* from home,
she should be sure to use one of their commercial products.

Post by Nicola Harlow
-----Original Message-----
From: Gordon McLean
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 12:10 PM
Subject: RE: Checklist for Reformatting
Install Belarc (before reformatting) and print out the report, that'll
give you a list of everything that will be useful in the future
(applications, reg numbers and so on)...

This message contains confidential information intended only for the use of
the addressee(s). If you are not the addressee, or the person responsible
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prohibited. If you have received this message by mistake, please notify us,
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thereafter. Thank you.

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within this mail are solely the view of the author and do not reflect the views of the organisation
as a whole.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
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[Gene Kim-Eng]

If your computer is more than a year or two old,
you can probably buy a new HD for lass than $100
that will be significantly faster and twice the size of
the one that came with the system. You can just
reconfigure the original HD as a secondary/slave
drive and have all your current files preserved until
you're sure you won't need them.

A couple of months ago I did this with the 80Gb
HD that came with my 2005 system. The new
drive cost $60, has read/write speeds about 20%
faster than the old one and is 240Gb.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message -----

Post by Nancy Allison
It's time to reformat my hard drive, but despite
saving almost everything to an external HP
Personal media drive, I'm scared to death that
I will lose key data.

[Nancy Allison]

Thank you, everyone, for the fantastic suggestions. I feel much better about this. The very first thing I'm going to try, before reformatting, is the System Restore technique. Maybe I won't have to reformat at all . . . she said with stars in her eyes . . .

--Nancy

[Leonard C. Porrello]

I'd second Gene's suggestion. I just did the same thing. After several
hours spent trying to restore a corrupted OS, I went out and got a 300
GB Western Digital EIDE drive for $50 at Circuit City. After installing
it as my primary drive, I simply reinstalled the OS (and updates). I now
have three times more memory and my system is faster. (Note: be sure to
get the right type of drive for your system). After I'm sure I do not
need any data from my old 80 GB drive, I'll reformat it and use it for
backups.

Leonard C. Porrello
SoleraTec LLC
www.soleratec.com



-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+leonard.porrello=***@lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+leonard.porrello=***@lists.techwr-l.c
om] On Behalf Of Gene Kim-Eng
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 10:10 AM
To: Nancy Allison; techwr-***@lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: Re: Checklist for Reformatting

If your computer is more than a year or two old,
you can probably buy a new HD for lass than $100
that will be significantly faster and twice the size of
the one that came with the system. You can just
reconfigure the original HD as a secondary/slave
drive and have all your current files preserved until
you're sure you won't need them.

A couple of months ago I did this with the 80Gb
HD that came with my 2005 system. The new
drive cost $60, has read/write speeds about 20%
faster than the old one and is 240Gb.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message -----

Post by Nancy Allison
It's time to reformat my hard drive, but despite
saving almost everything to an external HP
Personal media drive, I'm scared to death that
I will lose key data.

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[Nancy Allison]

Regarding an external drive . . . I have a laptop only, so I'd have to carry the external drive around, at least until I was absolutely sure I could delete and reformat the internal HD. Not a huge problem, I guess.

--Nancy

[Combs, Richard]

Post by Nancy Allison
Thank you, everyone, for the fantastic suggestions. I feel
much better about this. The very first thing I'm going to
try, before reformatting, is the System Restore technique.
Maybe I won't have to reformat at all . . . she said with
stars in her eyes . . .

Nancy, please read up on this -- I don't think System Restore means what
you think it means. Undoing the most recent X number of system changes
(software install/removal, etc.) isn't what you want to do and probably
won't do much to address your problem.

Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------

[Evans, Diane L (Rosetta)]

Post by Nancy Allison
I have a laptop only, so I'd have to carry the external drive around

Definitely not a problem. External drives are small. Here's one that
would easily fit in your laptop bag.
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/294222/Western-Portable-Hard-Drive
-60GB/


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and in Japan, as Banyu - direct contact information for affiliates is
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[Lauren]

Have you tried running Windows Task Manager to see if something is slowing
your processes? Have you looked for applications and files that can be
slowing things, like too many unarchived messages in Outlook, Internet
Explorer issues, excessive background applications and such? If your slow
down is caused by a corrupt file or an application that you plan to reload,
then you could risk slowing things again. Do you have an unencrypted
wireless connection that could be in use by hackers?

Are you sure that you've done everything to troubleshoot the situation?
Reformatting the hard drive should only be necessary if you have installed
something that corrupted your computer. You should find out what caused the
problem before you try to reformat your drive. Have removed all unnecessary
applications and files and run your disk defragmenter?

Lauren

Post by Nicola Harlow
-----Original Message-----
] On Behalf Of Nancy Allison
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 8:13 AM
Subject: Checklist for Reformatting
I've just done a web search for "checklist for reformatting
hard drive" and I have not found anything like what I'm looking for.
I work from home and don't have an IT department to rely on.
Even after I run SpyBot, Counterspy, Norton, and AdAware, and
even after I did a partial reinstallation of XP, my computer
is still as slow as cold molasses.
It's time to reformat my hard drive, but despite saving
almost everything to an external HP Personal media drive, I'm
scared to death that I will lose key data. Here's the backup
1. Export Contacts, Calendar, and Mail from Outlook, and
back up the exported files.
2. Export Favorites from IE and back up.
3. Back up all known data files.
4. Back up all downloaded executables that I will need to
reinstall software.

From your collective wisdom (and painful experiences) --

What hidden or obscure files am I not thinking of?
Honestly, I could not find an existing checklist for personal
computers. If there is one, please point me to it. If there
isn't, I'll create one from what I learn here and send it to
anyone who'd like to have it.
Thank you for your help. I am sick to death of having to take
a nap while waiting for a new application to open . . .
--Nancy

[Gene Kim-Eng]

I'd get an external USB enclosure. You buy the new HD,
plug it into the laptop and configure, then plug the old HD
into the enclosure and into USB. Price as low as $25.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message -----

Post by Evans, Diane L (Rosetta)
Definitely not a problem. External drives are small.

[Fred Ridder]

I'd get an external USB enclosure. You buy the new HD,
plug it into the laptop and configure, then plug the old HD
into the enclosure and into USB. Price as low as $25.

If your intention is to swap the drives between an external
USB enclosure and your laptop, there are two things you
*must* pay attention to.

First is whether the drive in the USB enclosure is actually
removable from the enclosure. The otherwise excellent (I
have one...) Western Digital Passport drives recommended
in another post are *NOT* removable from their enclosure
because the case is a very compact and close-fitting
2-piece plastic clamshell that appears to be welded closed.
You're almost certain to ruin the case if you tried to pry
it apart, and there's also a pretty great risk that you'd
damage the drive in the process, too.

Second is whether the drive in the USB enclosure is the
same interface as the one in your laptop. Chances are
good that the one in the USB box will be SATA (unless
it's a real cheapie), and if your laptop is more than 2
years old the chances are good that it uses an IDE drive.
At which point you wouldn't be able to do any swapping.

-Fred Ridder

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[Nancy Allison]

Post by Fred Ridder
if your laptop is more than 2
years old the chances are good that it uses an IDE drive.
At which point you wouldn't be able to do any swapping.

Oh, MAN. I think I'm almost home free, then a new twist arises! I have a WinBook (Microcenter in-house laptop) that's at least 3 years old. Now surely laptops had pop-out drives back then . . . I seem to recall they've had this for a while. Why won't I be able to pop this one out and stick in another?

Aarrgh.

--Nancy

[Gene Kim-Eng]

Nono, just buy an enclosure designed to have
drives swapped in and out of it, then buy the
new drive separately from that. Example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817816001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145329

Yes, the new drive and the enclosure will both
need to be the same type as the old drive.
There may be enclosures that can take both
types, but since the laptop will most likely only
take one, not much point considering the prices
on enclosures.

Gene




----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Ridder" <***@hotmail.com>


If your intention is to swap the drives between an external
USB enclosure and your laptop, there are two things you
*must* pay attention to.

First is whether the drive in the USB enclosure is actually
removable from the enclosure. The otherwise excellent (I
have one...) Western Digital Passport drives recommended
in another post are *NOT* removable from their enclosure
because the case is a very compact and close-fitting
2-piece plastic clamshell that appears to be welded closed.
You're almost certain to ruin the case if you tried to pry
it apart, and there's also a pretty great risk that you'd
damage the drive in the process, too.

Second is whether the drive in the USB enclosure is the
same interface as the one in your laptop. Chances are
good that the one in the USB box will be SATA (unless
it's a real cheapie), and if your laptop is more than 2
years old the chances are good that it uses an IDE drive.
At which point you wouldn't be able to do any swapping.

[Gene Kim-Eng]

What Fred means is that if your laptop uses
an IDE drive you'll need to make sure that the
new drive is also IDE.

Gene


----- Original Message -----

Post by Nancy Allison

Post by Fred Ridder
if your laptop is more than 2
years old the chances are good that it uses an IDE drive.
At which point you wouldn't be able to do any swapping.

Oh, MAN. I think I'm almost home free, then a new twist arises! I have
a WinBook (Microcenter in-house laptop) that's at least 3 years old.
Now surely laptops had pop-out drives back then . . . I seem to recall
they've had this for a while. Why won't I be able to pop this one out
and stick in another?

[Fred Ridder]

Post by Nancy Allison
Oh, MAN. I think I'm almost home free, then a new twist arises!
I have a WinBook (Microcenter in-house laptop) that's at least
3 years old. Now surely laptops had pop-out drives back then . . .
I seem to recall they've had this for a while. Why won't I be
able to pop this one out and stick in another?

The good news is that it is quite easy to swap out the hard disk
drive in a laptop (although not as easy as swapping FDD vs. CD
vs. DVD drives, which are externally accessible).

The bad news is that there are two physically different and
electrically incompatible interfaces used for 2.5" disk drives.
You must know which flavor interface you need. The old
standard was IDE (a parallel interface), the newer standard
is SATA (a serial interface), and never the twain shall meet.
More than ~2 years ago, you were more likely to find IDE than
SATA unless you were talking about a high-end laptop model.
These days, new laptops are almost exclusively SATA, which
means it has become harder to find IDE replacement drives
in the market.

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[Jan Cohen]

Another thing you might try to help speed things up a bit is run the Windows Task Manager to determine if the slowdown really is drive-related, or whether one or more application's processes are hogging system resources. You can do so by pressing the alt/ctrl/del buttons at the same time, which will open the Windows Task Manager window. Click on the "Processes" tab, then look in the "CPU" and "Memory Usage" columns for percentages or amounts of memory that seem higher than most of the others. Note: don't kill any of the processes by clicking on the "End Process" button unless you are sure it won't impact the other running processes. If you're not sure, let us know which processes seem questionable.

HTH,

jan c.

Post by Nicola Harlow
-----Original Message-----
] On Behalf Of Nancy Allison
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 8:13 AM
Subject: Checklist for Reformatting
I've just done a web search for "checklist for reformatting
hard drive" and I have not found anything like what I'm looking for.
I work from home and don't have an IT department to rely on.
Even after I run SpyBot, Counterspy, Norton, and AdAware, and
even after I did a partial reinstallation of XP, my computer
is still as slow as cold molasses.
It's time to reformat my hard drive, but despite saving
almost everything to an external HP Personal media drive, I'm
scared to death that I will lose key data. Here's the backup
1. Export Contacts, Calendar, and Mail from Outlook, and
back up the exported files.
2. Export Favorites from IE and back up.
3. Back up all known data files.
4. Back up all downloaded executables that I will need to
reinstall software.

From your collective wisdom (and painful experiences) --

What hidden or obscure files am I not thinking of?
Honestly, I could not find an existing checklist for personal
computers. If there is one, please point me to it. If there
isn't, I'll create one from what I learn here and send it to
anyone who'd like to have it.
Thank you for your help. I am sick to death of having to take
a nap while waiting for a new application to open . . .
--Nancy

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[Jan Cohen]

Ooops, I just noted that Lauren already mentioned use of the Windows Task Manager. My bad.

jan c.

----- Original Message ----
From: Jan Cohen <***@yahoo.com>
To: Nancy Allison <***@verizon.net>; techwr-***@lists.techwr-l.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 4:39:55 PM
Subject: Re: Checklist for Reformatting

Another thing you might try to help speed things up a bit is run the Windows Task Manager to determine if the slowdown really is drive-related, or whether one or more application's processes are hogging system resources. You can do so by pressing the alt/ctrl/del buttons at the same time, which will open the Windows Task Manager window. Click on the "Processes" tab, then look in the "CPU" and "Memory Usage" columns for percentages or amounts of memory that seem higher than most of the others. Note: don't kill any of the processes by clicking on the "End Process" button unless you are sure it won't impact the other running processes. If you're not sure, let us know which processes seem questionable.

HTH,

jan c.

[Rick Stone]

Hi all

If you do choose to go the enclosure route, be certain you know what
type of hard drive it actually is. I recently did just what is described
here by installing a fresh 120 gig drive to replace an older 60 gig.
Ordered an enclosure for a 3.5 in drive off the web. Failed to work.
Turned out my drive was SATA and the enclosure was for IDE, so the
connectors were different.

Nice though to carry all my old data around!

Cheers... Rick :)

Post by Gene Kim-Eng
I'd get an external USB enclosure. You buy the new HD,
plug it into the laptop and configure, then plug the old HD
into the enclosure and into USB. Price as low as $25.
Gene Kim-Eng
----- Original Message -----

Post by Evans, Diane L (Rosetta)
Definitely not a problem. External drives are small.

[Gene Kim-Eng]

Ok, here:

Supports 2.5" SATA and IDE drives up to 160Gb. $14.

http://www.meritline.com/2-5-sata-ide-hard-drive-enclosure-silver.html

This one's interesting, no enclosure, just a cable and adapter
that connects USB to a 2.5" or 3.5" SATA or IDE drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156017

I oughta be getting a commission for doing all this personal shopping. :)

Gene


----- Original Message -----

Post by Rick Stone
If you do choose to go the enclosure route, be certain you know what
type of hard drive it actually is. I recently did just what is described
here by installing a fresh 120 gig drive to replace an older 60 gig.
Ordered an enclosure for a 3.5 in drive off the web. Failed to work.
Turned out my drive was SATA and the enclosure was for IDE, so the
connectors were different.

[Gordon McLean]

With regards to the reply from jan which ended with "If you're not sure, let
us know which processes seem questionable."

With the greatest of respect, please don't "let us know which processes seem
questionable". There are many websites that do just that, easily found by
entering the process name into a Google search. I'm all for swapping tips
and tricks but there are excellent reference websites out there that would
be better suited to handling that kind of request.

That said, this thread has reminded me of a few things I've been meaning to
do myself, so good luck with the reformatting!

Gordon


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