That didn't take long

[Gary_C]

Well I took Doug's advice, sent him a PM, and rebuilt that old computer. It was relatively simple and fairly inexpensive as compared to having the local computer shop recover my data.

Getting the system started was a little less than simple because of operating system trouble. On the old HP computer the Windows 2000 was preloaded and no discs provided. The new replacement HP computer had recovery discs but they would not recognize the older Win 2000 system as a HP computer. But finally today I was able to load a copy of XP Pro on a spare hard drive and then add that old hard drive as a slave and all my data is right there, the hard drive still works. It just is not bootable. 

The problem is the copy of XP has no product key that works so I have 30 days and that system will not function. The solution for now, I am downloading a copy of the new Windows 7 Release Candidate. It will hopefully work till June 2010 and by then the new version will be released. I started the download and it said that it should take anywhere from 16 to 23 hours. 

But I have all my data back. Now if I could just find all my old program discs or get that old hard drive to boot and all would be well.

That and if Microsoft does not want as much for the new Windows 7 as the computer fix cost. You don't get any break in price for testing the release candidate. 

My thanks for all the good advice and help, especially from DouginUtah. 

[baronthered]

Windows 7 is good I downloaded the beta too and am loving it. As far as formatting a NTSF drive back to Fat 32 it can be done it just takes some work. See micrisoft doesn't WANT people to be able to do stuff like that because Fat 32 system is old and to them obsolete. Sad thing is Microsoft takes away a bunch of things users should be able to do but they don't because they are old and according to them nobody should be able to do them now.