[Dave Hybrid]

Hmmmm.

If you get a matching CD to your current install you can do a repair like I said above.

If you can't get a CD you will have to use your recovery CD which will wipe everything.

[Chorlton]

Ok cheers for that. So incase I have to wipe the lot. What's the best backup software and is there any good free or open source available?

[serverguy]

Originally Posted by Chorlton Ok cheers for that. So incase I have to wipe the lot. What's the best backup software and is there any good free or open source available?

Just copy all your stuff to another drive and then copy it back once reformatted. No need for backup software really.

[Chorlton]

I've been putting it off for a while but I'm going to have to get a new hard drive. Out of the 35gig I started with I'm now down to 2 and a bit which probably doesn't help the poor machine, otherwise it's a lot of cds.

[Dave Hybrid]

A hard drive is nothing, fit that, do the recovery and setup the old drive as a slave.

Cheapest HD on ebuyer is £30, to boot it is an Westen Digital and 80GB.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/23275

Another thing is to make sure you have drivers for the hardware inside the machine before you start.

[Chorlton]

80gig will be about the limit this poor old girl could probably handle. PC world do EIDE drives with humungus gigs for around £79 but I think that's wishful thinking for this old timer.

[Dave Hybrid]

PCW are very overpriced mate.

Get it online from ebuyer, dabs or such like.

You will find 40GB drives are getting rare and as a result are more than 80GB drives.