Over the years I have read many enjoyable posts from this forum. I never thought to register until now because I rarely register for any forum. However, this time I really thought I HAD to register just so I could post this. Safety is so important for us all. We all want to be safe. Our government is interested in safety too--its own safety and that includes "covering its butt." For years many things that were safe are now no longer safe. They say we can't pickle and can eggs. They say we can't have a breakfast with runny yolks anymore--at home or in a restaurant, even though I do it daily in my own home. They say we can't defrost our meat on the counter. They say we can't drink cider made from apples that have fallen on the ground, even though people have done so for centures. They say, they say, and they say.... Sometimes "they" say it because they're covering their butts; they don't want a law suit. Sometimes they say it because there are a lot of dumb people out there who would follow filthy procedures and endanger their own lives. Sometimes they say it because more and more we are encouraged to do nothing to sustain ourselves foodwise--from growing, to butchering, to cooking, to canning, etc.--so that we will all be dependent on the food companies and their processed garbage and exorbitant prices. So many people don't even know how to cook today, and we're told that just about everything we cook or make is unsafe now. It's no wonder that our minds and bodies are so impoverished. I have been home canning for many, many years, and everything I have ever canned has been completely safe. It seems I have been unable to kill anyone after all. One young whipper snapper with a "degree" in some sort of food fetish once told me I was playing Russian Roulet and that someday I would pay. I haven't paid yet. I think about her often. I'll bet at this point what she says more than anything else is, "Would you like fries with that?" I am not afraid of my canned foods. I use a boiling water bath canner and a pressure canner as needed. I follow clean and safe procedures. I am not afraid of canned pickled eggs, or my water bath salsa, or my half-vinegar half-water dilly beans. I just can't seem to kill myself no matter how hard I try. I'm grateful for this topic. I'm grateful for the author's bravery and website, which I have been on multiple times, and I am grateful for his recipe. I am not afraid at all. I especially like Matt Haynes post above. He has hit the nail on the head. So many people are running around fearing that the sky is falling, the sky is falling! The media has us all by throat every night as we breathlessly watch terrible things and they tell us we may be next. Everything is hyped to the max, everything is of the utmost urgency, and the public is in a state of constant heightened arousal and fear. It's to the point where some people are even afraid to leave their house. And on...

On ebay you can find a device I like called a disk drive 'rack' or carrier. You put it in like a floppy drive, on the other 1/2 you put in any disk drive. Then you can plug in the disk like a floppy and run it anytime you want to look at the drive. This could be something for $14 that would help you to move files from old , hard drive, to a new one $60 for 750gb on amazon. JDMADERA has the disk racks for serial (SATA or parallel) or you can use an external hard drive, or any drive with an external adapter $14. I personally like the reasoning of buying a new drive to put all my files on it. I get a new drive, I copy my old files and test the new drive for a while before I commit to it , and have the chance to sell my old drive while having a backup. Another idea: If many files are text based then zip or RAR them and mail them to yourself. Many mail sites accept 2mb up to 20mb mail attachments. That might handle most of your documents and that way you have them backed up. It's a secondary backup.. you should still have them somewhere else but one site I use has been good to me for 5 years, for free, holding 40mb of stuff. I apoligize if I didn't answer your Q excactly. I'm in a hurry and tried to offer what I could to what I thought I saw in your post.. in a 30 second quick read. Andre

I use the free online zamzar to do file conversions. www.zamzar.com this is another good online free option that does tons of various types of conversions Media-Convert.Com for programs to install that do this I always check out gizmo's site for his best of list, he usually has excellent choices and safe ones. Best Free Audio / Video Format Conversion Program I don't know anything about the one you mentioned.

There are many pieces of good, free software available. I easily have a dozen major software programs that I downloaded for free, and a number of them work better than the paid versions I previously used. And just because you pay for something doesn't mean it's problem-free. It's true that paid software from a reliable company is not going to contain a virus, but it might be the target of a virus because it's popular, or it might come with add-ons that you don't want. Whenever I am contemplating downloading some free software that looks good, I usually do a Google search with the name of the product +"review" or +"problem" or +"scam". If you see that a lot of people seem to be happy with it, or that you don't get significant negative hits, then it's probably safe. Even so, save it first and then give it a virus scan before installing.