Harrycat,
I did say in the original message that the HDD was partitioned into Two but did not add "C and D" drives. Thank you for your answer but being a computer dumdum I would'nt know how to get into DOS.
Johnathan,
Partition Magic is mentioned on the Acer website but they do not say if it is free or how much it cost's. I like the moving of data bit so will go for it when I can find the cost. The local IT shop want 20 plus VAT to do it. Thank you
tyketto,
Thank you, will have a look. SD

Not wishing to teach an old Seadog how to 'suck eggs' but............

Whichever route you follow I'd recommend you copy the existing disk to an external one so that if anything goes wrong you have not lost everything.

A couple of years ago I got a highly respected IT company to install a disk caddy in a PC and in the process they thrashed the hard disk. Luckily I'd copied it with Acronis the previous evening - but without that we'd have been in a real mess.

TP

TP
How did you know I was an "old" seadog TP ??? lol.
The laptop (an Acer 7720) has room, I am told, for a second HD so will go for a 500GB second drive, and that will solve the problem.
Many thanks to all . SD.

EDIT - downloaded "Java Upgrades" and that seems to have fixed it....isn't is amazing that fixing one part
of a Computer, results in the rest needing fixing, too? Grr.

Have just upgraded my computer OS, XP to sp3,
But I've noticed, on this site, I'm getting a request to access a new web-site (= . .. . .). I wonder if anyone knows what this file/program is - and if it is acceptable to allow the connection.

Currently I cannot display the Graphs used by "Quote", whereas up to recently they looked OK.
Also if I click on an RNS, that too will no-longer display.


Yet "Investors' Room" works OK, as does the posting. The "Losers/Gainers" works OK also.
+Obviously I am able to Log-In .

I want to check (here), that this is an issue with "this site" - rather than with the updates created by MS. Seems rather a coincidence this happens at the same time.

Not a problem. Just a comment.

I have a couple of two year old Vista PC's both with 250 gig HDD's.

I decided to clean up the old Restore Points and on one machine it recovered me 30 gig and on the other 20 gig. The latter is not normally on the internet so does fewer MS upgrades.

Useful space!

Back to the sunshine and fresh air.... Enjoy your summer, folks.

TP

One for MM possibly.
I want to make up an external lead, HDD(IDE) to USB.
I have the pinouts for both connectors but cannot
find info as to which pins on the IDE I should connect
the USB.(red+5v,white data-,green data+,black gnd)
I have an external main supply for the HDD, or could
possibly use a spare on the computer I am using to
format the external HDD.
TIA>
mac

tyketto: not sure myself.

Bear in mind that the maximum current that you should draw from a USB port is 500mA, so you might want to make sure that you use the external power supply and not connect the +5v line.

I have to confess that sloth usually overcomes me these days, and I just buy the appropriate lead. It's less exciting than DIY but more certain.

Amazon carry a few options at about 10-15 which isn't too outrageous.

Cheers, MM

Thanks MM.
There is a standalone lead available at a similar price,
but I thought that having the where-withall to hand,
I'd have ago myself.
Ta again.
mac

tyketto, an IDE interface is nothing like a USB one. To start with, the IDE interface is parallel, i.e. the data bits are presented as one or more bytes simultaneously on multiple pins. The USB interface is serial, the bits will come one by one. Also, USB devices identify themselves to the PC, IDE ones don't. The lead you saw must include a lot of electronics to convert one interface to the other, it is not a simple wiring job.

To be honest unless it is a stopgap solution (to get the data off the drive for instance), you are unlikely to get good results by doing this. Much better to buy a USB drive.

Thanks to Kayak for pointing out the obvious, so bleedin' obvious I completely ignored it.

Thinks.

MM, at least with punched cards you knew where you stood...

Strange but my Spybot has suddenly started to refuse to clear/fix any problems that it finds as 'I am not the administrator'.
I have changed nothing on my PC and as I am the only users, surely I am an administrator.
Any ideas, gratefully received.

Kayak, until you dropped the deck. Always preferred punched paper tape myself.

Now that I am working out here in UAE, I want to use my laptop to make cheap/free calls to my home phone.

What hardware / software am I likely to need.

Tks

jeff skype is pretty good for most things. I also use voipfone which can be configured with a software phone on PC although i dont use it like that.

jeffie: Skype is your best bet. You can even get a Skypein number which is a London number, complete with answering service, for Skypeless persons to call you. Get a decent headset (I recommend Sennheiser) and remember to put your clothes on before making video calls.

You could try one of these and there are many similar

www.voipcheap.com


www.internetcalls.com

If you are calling from abroad then calls to UK are FREE

just

plug in a headset and add some credit to your account and then the calls are free.

http://www.internetcalls.com/en/calling-rates.html

http://www.voipcheap.co.uk/en/rates.html

Thanks for those suggestions, I will look at them now.

Are you sending me to dodgy sites H. Access to both of those is blocked by the ABU Dhabi authorities. I will try Skype