*Gah*, sorry to hear it's still giving you grief, Dawn. I don't think that having a second hard drive would solve the problem- unless you wish to copy your large files over to this, then format your old drive.
I still think thaink that formatting your faulty drive is the best thing to do. If you can get into your desktop OK, open 'My Computer' then where you see the icon for "Local Disk (C:)" just reight-click it then move down to "Format".
This erases everything on that disk and should get rid of the problem you were having.
The only bad thing is that you will need to reinstall everything again from scratch, your operating system, programes etc. However you shouldn't need to install drivers for the CD-ROM drive(s) because the OS has generic drivers that work with these OK.
If you're unable to use your CD-ROM drive to burn your files onto CD I understand why you'd want another hard disk to back up your info. I'm sure hubby will stump the bill if it means you get this solved
I would be concerned that if you were to back up your entire hard disk by means of mirroring the info onto this new disk, you will also be copying over the main problem too...
NOTE: When you format your drive, that doesn't mean to have to loose all your emails and settings, WinXP has the neat 'Files & Settings Transfer Wizard' in the 'Accessories' folder which can save your emails, display settings etc and various files of your choosing.
I'd recommend running this wizard from the WinXP CD itself. If you insert the CD, click 'Additional Tasks' and you'll find it there. This has been successful for me, moreso than the Wizard on my actual HD.
