My first thought is to just replace your computer with the landlady's.
Just copy the files you need to a floppy or CD and transfer them.
Second choice would be to  replace the old HD with the used one,
reformat and reinstall , which sounds like a good idea anyway, given the
problem you describe.
You might also look into a USB case for the HD, but you haven't told us
your computer model or OS, so I'm not sure if that would work.
If you want to drive to Annapolis, I'll give you an old Dell which is in
better shape than your existing machine. I've also got several HDs lying
around you could have.


Joan Quarles/dtr of Job wrote:

>
>I'm a senior citizen on disability without any med insurance for
>the two-year qualification period required by Medicare.
>
>Soooooooo... I can't afford to replace my old Dell Optiplex
>(1.96 Gb HDD)which I dearly love, love, love.  I want you to
>stop laughing at my old machine now, Computer Lady!  It performs
>basic functions but the hard drive is going to crash someday
>(hard drive failure notice pops up on every boot-up and has done
>so for more than a year).
>
>My roommate/landlady has an old computer she's not using.  After
>I format her hard drive to clean it, how may I hook it up TO my
>present computer to use as a second hard drive?  I do have one
>of those cables one can use computer-to-computer, or at least
>THINK that's what it is.  It came with my old Disc Clone (tm)
>which also cannot be used to interface with my poor old Optiplex
>(but nicely copies all my CD's all by itself).
>
>Complicating factors:  For some reason "My Computer" thinks
>there are drives A, C, D, E, & F when in fact there are only A,
>C, D, & E.  FYI, I purchased the old girl used 4 years ago, and
>she'd obviously been part of a network before coming home with
>me.
>
>Phew!  Will you help me, please?  I just want to use my
>landlady's old computer as a back-up HDD til my Optiplex crashes
>and then use it as the primary.  Her HDD won't fit as an actual
>replacement inside my computer.
>
>
>
>
>

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