[SpaceBadger]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
Backing up your important documents (like SE4 savegames) should have been the very FIRST thing to do!
The stuff you created yourself is also the stuff you can't just download or reinstall from CD, and the very hardest to replace.

Oh, no worries there! That stuff was all backed up to CD at first sign of trouble, and real important stuff (original stuff created by me or my kids, digital photos, various other kinds of data that would be impossible or time-consuming to replace) was already getting backed up before the HD ever started giving trouble, just as a matter of routine.

What I meant is mostly copying and re-installing software on the new drive, and moving settings (and savegames ) from the old HD. I didn't want to do all of that stuff until I had it working right. I'll also move all of that important "original creations" type stuff to the new drive now, just because it is easier to copy it from the old HD directly to the new HD than it would be to load it all from various backup CDs. Then I'll run CRC comparisons to make sure there were no errors in the copying. I don't take chances with family stuff that can't be replaced!

I figure I'll continue to use the old HD as extra storage space until it fails, =only= for stuff that would not be a big pain to reinstall - games, archives that are already backed up on CD, etc.

SpaceBadger