Hi, back again, having gotten sidetracked researching a new computer system. I bought a Maxtor external Drive but I am taking it back after reading many many posts suggesting they fail more often than others. I also am finding that even when you use an external drive, that most people recommend that you back up to DVD/CD as well. So I am wondering if you have to back up the external drive, then why have one at all? I didn't want to spend the money on small flash drives to 'store' my data on, because it would not be cheap in comparison to much more storage space on an external drive for the money. But I think I would like to use ONE flashdrive? memory stick? [Are they the same, btw?] just to transfer my data from the old computer to the new. They can be written over repeatedly, correct? After I am finished transferring, I would like to use the flash drive to put my most valuable docs and photos onto the flash drive and use it to store in a safety deposit box. Is that possible? I am thinking that once I get onto a new machine with a new DVD player that would also allow me to write to a DVD, that I could back up that way. Am I making sense? Any experiences that would suggest I should think of doing something else? Oh, btw, I do have a wireless home network and two laptops use the network. One is a Macbook and at the moment one is a PC. Is there anything I should know about formatting my data so it can be used by both Win/PC and Mac? Any storage media I can get that will allow me to use it on both? Thank you all for the input... :-) pm2

I would use Windows Explorer (right click Start, click Explore) then locate my Word doc, right click on it, click Copy in the pop up menu. Locate the CD burner on the left side, right click on it, click Paste. Now a balloon should appear near the clock inviting you to click to burn to CD. If not then right click on the CD burner and click "Write these files to CD" and follow along.

As only leaving Win98 18 months ago, kicking and screaming I admit, my position is it shouldn't matter R vs RW. I would recommend that she open My Computer and see if the drive is recognizing the disk. Unless you named the disk it should read as a series of numbers rather than the drive letter identifier. If the disk is recognized have her double click on it, or right click and select open on the appearing drop down menu. I do have one other thought. Your WMP version may be so more ahead than hers, she might not have the technical ability to open the files. You might have to redo the disk with perhaps Irfanview and ask her to install it on her system too. Irfanview worked fine on my old Win98 and still does on the one out in the garage. Plus, to avoid the possiblity use a CD-R if you do. DA

THANK YOU! This looks like something that would do it although I'm not understanding how the gadget plugs into the two ports at the back of the old Panasonic (perhaps it just needs another cord with the red and white plugs at each end). I also did more web searching and came up with the Ion u-Record Music Archiver at Think Geek I'm not sure how it works...as it too just seems to connect the computer with the old music outfit, but this one seems to need software installed and I'm wondering if it is for more complex stuff than I'm trying to do. Has anyone used this? As I said before, I'm not very computer savvy (I'm from the old LP era) and appreciate being able to do this without a lot of frills and hassles. Thanks again for any and all input. Here is a link that might be useful: Ion u-Record