Grandms - I checked hidden icons and it wasn't there. So I just did it by turning off the computer. Canibus - since I have an on/off switch, if I turn that off, is it sufficient to do that first - then disconnect the esata cable? I did unplug it - but may have turned it off, disconnected from pc, and then unplugged power. These are such important things - the order of shut down and disconnection. It's something I never thought about until very recently - and several people I've talked to since had no idea about the safely remove hardware button - or the order of disconnecting,powering down an external drive. The people I talked to just unplugged the drive - and so far they've been very, very lucky. When I reconnect the ext. drive, just want to be sure I have the order correct: computer off connect external drive to power adapter and plug it in connect esata (or usb) cable to computer turn on the hard drive (or do I turn it on before connecting to pc?) turn on the computer I'm asking bc. I just got an external drive for my daughter's computer and the instructions don't say anything about whether the computer has to be off or on before connecting the ext. drive. Thanks. Lynn.

You can move all you pictures and other data to the external hard drive that you are not likely to need often to create space. Any uninstalled programs can be moved there to store. On the existing drive you might try running Ccleaner to remove excess files and a host of other odds and ends left behind over time. The program is free and very safe when ran with the default settings. Defrag after helps too. Ideally you need 20 to 25% free space on your C drive for the computer to work smoothly.

The documents and pictures are (mostly) still there. When something is deleted, all that really occurs is that the first letter of the file name is dropped and the file becomes "invisible." You should be able to recover most or all of the files with the right software. However, if you keep using your computer, you stand a good chance of over-writing the files because the space they occupy is "free space" as far as the computer is concerned. My advice: use another computer and do a Google search for "recover deleted files" to find some software that works for you. It's been several year since I've had to hunt for deleted files, so I'm not up-to-date on what's out there. If possible, install the software you select on the new drive so that you don't over-write more accidentally deleted files when you install the new software.

It depends on what kind of backup you did. A full backup stores the entire working disk, in compressed format, onto the backup device. If you are using backup software and a full backup exists, then a new backup may have been an "incremental" one by default. When an incremental backup is done, the only files written to the new backup set are any new files not in the old set and any files that have been changed. Ususally, this second incremental set is much smaller than the original. Letrs suppose that the backup device has the following sets: 1. A full backup 2. Incremental 1 3. Incremental 2 4. Incremental 3 And now a disaster happens and there is a need to restore the files. The restoration has to follow the same order in which these sets were written. First, the full backup set is restored to the new drive followed by the incremental sets in order 2,3, and 4. It is important that the sets were named in way to identify the order in which they were written. A common method is to include the date in the set name. Use either the ascending or descending format for the date, e.g. "day Month Year" or "year Month day" I have big off-line disk and I do not use a compressed backup, nor do I backup my operating system. I back up only my data files and for that I do a direct copy. I have 2 hard drives in my computer and these are subdivided into several logical drives. I keep all my important files on one of the logical drives and when I backup, I merely copy the entire data drive. Its simple, easy, and lazy. I suppose that if I were dilligent, I would keep an "image" copy of the system disk. That could save a lot of time in case of a crash, because several years of updates would be there. The problem is the system image must be current. There can be losses if an image was made and then actions were done that made changes to the registery such as an install of an update or software - and now a crash occurs. There is no record of the new registry. When the system is restored, the registry can not recognize the newly installed system files. In some cases, the system may lock up when the user tries to run one of the new programs.