starting fresh with a new computer

Christer,
Your assumption about my optical drives being D: and E: is correct, and I understand the rationale for changing them.
My present F: drive shows up the way your D: and E: drives do: a green outline all around, with a blue bar across the top (within the green outline).
So I'm going to assign new letters to my optical drives, reboot, change my F: drive to the letter D:, reboot, and then format the D: drive - then I'll post back to let you know how it went (unless you'll be asleep by then, in which case I'll check back with you tomorrow).
THANKS!

 

Wow, rebooting twice with my old computer would've taken me close to 10 minutes - with the new one, my newly re-lettered D: drive is already formatting!

 

Hi Christer,

I have two internal drives and two external.

Do you think there are any advantages to using the drive racks the way you do as opposed to havng drives connected via USB - I have two and shutting them down makes them invisble to the system.

Regards - Charles

 

Lol, Christer, you're right: I do enjoy this stuff, despite the butterflies it sometimes causes in my stomach.
I'm thinking about maybe adding the hard drive from my old computer as a second hard drive for my new computer, but I have to see if I can figure out how to tell if the old drive is still "good" - as mentioned earlier in this thread, I've had all sorts of trouble with the old computer, some of it related to WinME, some to just bad luck with what appears to have been a Dell "lemon ". Not sure how to tell if any of the problems might have actually been due to hard drive issues...
Thank you for anticipating my next question, which was going to be how to put my data on my new D: drive rather than C: I'm definitely going to be using Firefox; haven't yet decided between Thunderbird and Outlook Express. Never created an address book outside of a mail program before...
Anyway, I've been sitting at these computers all day - I need to go eat something, and you need to get some sleep. At least the formatting of my new D: drive was successful (file system now shows as NTFS), so as far as I'm concerned, today has ultimately been a success.
I'm going to call Dell again for help with reinstalling drivers, seeing as they volunteered to do that with me -- these will go on C: drive with my OS, yes?
Can't thank you enough for your patience and help here today! Thanks for the second screenshot, too... looks like I might be venturing into that territory myself in the not-too-distant future!

 

Hi Rebecca,

I'm thinking about maybe adding the hard drive from my old computer as a second hard drive for my new computer, but I have to see if I can figure out how to tell if the old drive is still "good"
One way to do that is to go to the drive manufacturer's site and download a disk diagnostic program.

WinME just gets "old ", that was my experience and whatever Dell loaded on to your shipped system could also have played a part which is why as hard as this exercise turned out to be, it'll be worth.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi Christer,

My system originaly had 1.1 as well - added a 5 slot 2.0 card just for the 2 drives. Obviously, Rebecca would't have to do that.

Regards - Charles

 

Right-click the My computer icon on the desktop, choose Properties > Hardware > Device manager > are there any yellow question marks?

If not, specific drivers may not be necessary.

If no flags in DM, they're not necessary.

Which drivers are "on demand "?
There should be a cd that contains the drivers. If any needed, they can be installed from that.

Regards - Charles

 

If either of you is still here, is there any reason/advantage for me to "divide" my D: drive (extended partition) into more than one logical partition (which is what I seem to have right now) before I go any further?

Charles,
Under Device Manager, "Other devices" has a yellow question mark in front of it. Sub-entries under that include Ethernet Controller, PCI Device, PCI Modem, SM Bus Controller, Video Controller, and Video Controller (VGA Compatible).

I do have a "Drivers and Utilities" cd from Dell - do I just boot up the computer with it in the cd drive? Given my level of inexpertise, do you think I'll be able to identify the drivers to satisfy those yellow question marks? I prefer not to call Dell if I don't have to...

 

Hi Rebecca,

is there any reason/advantage for me to "divide" my D: drive (extended partition) into more than one logical partition
Unless there is a specific reason to do so, and in your case I don't think there is, I don't see any reason to divide D any further. Keep in mind that any added partition will add to any dialog about where to download, move, copy to/from, etc. Up to now, having had only one partition, you haven't had that extra step to take.

For data, folders are the way to organize your stuff IMO.

Wait to see what others have say though.


Regards - Charles

 

Hi Rebecca,

About the drivers: Yes I would call Dell and have them take you thru the procedure. W/O seeing exactly what's on that cd, that's what I would do. Drivers are not necessarily easily unidentifiable by name.

Regards - Charles

 

Aw heck, guys, and here I was thinking I almost had things under control! Never occurred to me that Firefox and Thunderbird would have to be modified in order to have my profiles saved on my D: drive!
OK, first things first - I'll call Dell and see if the drivers question is a 24/7 kind of tech support issue, or a 9-5 one. Then I'll get back to the FF and TB nightmares...