aardvarkeater

You might also want to look into a laptop that has a built-in EVDO modem. That will work with Verizon's "high-speed" wireless data plan and allow you to access the website with a full featured browser anywhere that a cell could. I know Dell, Lenovo, Sony, and HP offer laptops with this option. I'd call them up and see if they could recommend something. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

I'd guess that the SATA to USB control boards of the enclosures you looked at have some limitation that allows them to only access 250GB. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010090092%201053807124%201054207132%201054107131&bop=And&Order=PRICE A number of drive enclosures listed in the link above support 320GB and should work just fine for you. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

A great data recovery program I use is Runtime Software's GetDataBack. It does a great job of recovering data even if no MBR or partition table exists. http://www.runtime.org/ Now about that free drive....

I agree that heat could cause warping of a drive platter, however I'll disagree that it's going to warp so much that it'll hit the case of the drive. If it does warp enough it'll cause a head crash before it touches the case. In the case of a head crash the drive will make some god awful grinding noises that are worse than a few intermittent clicks. Paul doesn't have that. The clicking (if it is coming from the hard drive and not a system fan) more than likely is coming from bad sectors trying to be read multiple times, a defective spindle, or possibly loose read/write heads. Heat usually affects the bearings of the spindle first and can prevent the HD from spinning up. Putting the drive in the freezer or whacking the hard drive on the side can unstick the motor and cause the drive to spin up again, however 9 times out of 10 it either won't work or cause additional damage. Also, if you were to then send the drive to a data recovery specialist, freezing it could prevent full data recovery from happening. A great site that has some excellent presentations on hard drive data recovery can be found here: http://www.myharddrivedied.com/presentations.html Btw I'm A+ Certified too. Oh btw Paul, if there's dust on the HD it'll just get flung off when it spins up. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

Ummm......no. To all of that. (except the backing up part) Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

Well you can get a 500Gb external HD for $100 or less. Price also depends how much you care about the brand name and any manufacturer specific technologies (various back-up software, one-touch backups, etc.) That's enough for most people's music collections. Go with Seagate. They have the best manufacturer's warranty out there. Next go with Western Digital. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

With that additional info it very well may just be the processor overheating. There's a good way to test this. Being the cautious type, I'd still first get the eternal HD and backup your data. (And they're still cool to have

It's be slow and older motherboards like yours typically didn't have the capability to boot off an external USB device. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

What do graphic designers know about computers? All they know how to do is make pretty pictures. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

Typically if you buy an external HD it will be in a manufacturer's own case that isn't easy to take apart. I'm recommending 2 HDs because it's very handy to always have a dedicated exteranal HD for a variety of things. If you want to go cheap and only use 1 HD the only way to backup and repair everything would be to buy an external enclosure, and a new laptop HD. Image the faulty HD to the new HD in the enclosure and then take HD out of the enclosure and install it into the laptop. If you meant running your laptop off of an external HD permanently, that's not a good idea and not really feasible. It's technically possible but not likely. Edit to add: With one HD you could also use npgraphicdesign's method as described, but again I don't really like it because you're moving a HD from somewhere that works, and could potentially cause more issues with the move. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

I agree that could be a problem as well. It could be that there's not enough airflow getting to the CPU. You could try leaving the laptop flat and raising it up off the table with some books or something to see if the increased airflow you get will work. If the laptop's as old as he says it is than a dying fan is a definite possibility. Intermittent clicking every 4-5 seconds still sounds like a potential HD issue and a backup should be the first priority. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

I disagree with this method. If the hard drive is still working in the laptop, don't mess with it till the data can be backed up. If it's a physical problem with the drive, no matter how minor, taking the drive out and putting it into an external enclosure could potentially cause more damage. Keeping the hard drive working long enough to backup the data should be the first priority. Only after the data is backed up should moving the faulty drive happen. 1. Backup data to external HD that has preferably double the capacity of the current hard drive. 2. If possible, clone the whole laptop HD to an image on the external HD. 3. Install new laptop HD and restore HD clone to new drive. (If clone not possible, then install a new OS and restore the data) Good point as well

I disagree with this method. If the hard drive is still working in the laptop, don't mess with it till the data can be backed up. If it's a physical problem with the drive, no matter how minor, taking the drive out and putting it into an external enclosure could potentially cause more damage. Keeping the hard drive working long enough to backup the data should be the first priority. Only after the data is backed up should moving the faulty drive happen. 1. Backup data to external HD that has preferably double the capacity of the current hard drive. 2. If possible, clone the whole laptop HD to an image on the external HD. 3. Install new laptop HD and restore HD clone to new drive. (If clone not possible, then install a new OS and restore the data) Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

If you heard rattling from your hard drive, it wouldn't even work. An external HD is a handy thing to have. You can pick them up for ~$100 and a new internal laptop HD for ~$50-100. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

Sounds like a physical problem with the hard drive. I'd BACKUP ALL YOUR DATA IMMEDIATELY and look at getting a new hard drive. Quickest thing to do would be to get an external hard drive at Fry's, BestBuy, Wal-Mart and copy everything to it. Edit to add: If it's a work laptop, backup everything and have your IT department look at it. If it's a personal one I could fix it for ya. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

Need me a Cisco 2610Xm Router and a 2950 Switch!

If you're taking requests....Mahi-Mahi!

Woot's doing it's thing again. Get it while the gettin's good. http://www.woot.com Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

Overall it was one of the best programs about skydiving I've seen. Aside from showing the reserve in the wrong position and not mentioning AFF as a first time jump option, I thought it was very thorough for an hour program. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

Happy birthday Laura. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

This one's got better music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGYnwd3ArqU Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

Go for the always popular skydiving theme name. I vote for "Swooping-Toggle-Monkey-Sabre-Flare" ...or Annabelle.

Get a program called DVD Shrink. It will rip the DVD to the hard drive with everything intact. It was originally designed to rip and compress a dual layer DVD to fit on a single layer burnable DVD, but it works great for just ripping to the hard drive. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

Try cleaning the heads/nozzles with a qtip doused in alcohol. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793

Being in the process right now of training one puppy and having dealt with two previous ones, as well as attempting to train a brother and sister together, I will say one puppy is more than enough to keep you guys busy. Two is a big increase in training time and money. With all the other things you guys will have going on, I'd stick with one. While it's a nice idea to think that you need to have two dogs to keep each other company, one dog can easily be left alone by itself for the day and be fine. Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793