It's possible you've got a couple of ribbons that are tangled up so it looks like it's one long one?

I'd say it's hard not to, unless he has SCSI, which is unlikely. IDE has three connections, tops: controller, drive 0, drive 1.

Why does it look like the ribbon is just threaded through an opening rather than actually going into the drive?

Don't know, but it just looks that way. The wires in that ribbon cable really do connect the drive to the motherboard.

I need to replace ZoneAlarm. Basically it stop running leaving the system vulnerable at random moments. It also hangs the system on occasion as an added gift with purchases. I looked it up: this is a known bug Zone labs is not dealing with at all. For some users, a clean reinstall fixes it, and I tried that. But it did not work. If a clean reinstall does not work to fix this bug, there is no other known fix. (BTW, though I'm using the free versions, this problem occurs with all windows versions, no matter what you paid.) Don't know what systems it happens or not with. And if anyone else knows (glares ZoneLabsward) they are not saying.

So: Comodo?

Kerio?

Any other free firewall recommendations?

Yeah, I quit on ZoneAlarm myself. But I have no practical advice because I just didn't replace it. (C'mon hackers!)

Get a router. Most have built in firewalls.

Umm have one. But you need a software firewall as well.

Why?

Seriously, I'd like to know!

Because there are still tons of ways your machine can become infected. A software firewall looks at what is going on in your machine instead of just network traffic. So if you accidentally click OK, or click on a picture with an embedded worm, it can detect it and stop it. Yeah there is some overlap with antivirus; but a firewall takes a slightly different approaches and catches stuff anti-virus software might not. In short if you never practice unsafe computing, for example if you never ahem anything, then you can probably get by without a firewall. And if you don't let anybody who is less careful than you are on your computer or network. Or if you have a Mac or Linux rather than windows, then hardware alone is almost enough. But, if for any reason, you have windows, especially if you have computers networked in windows, then you do want a software firewall.

It seems to me that "anti-virus software" + "a hardware firewall" does all that, but perhaps I'm missing something.

I use windows firewall. It is okay for my needs. Zonealarm fucked up my machine too.