I can't help you, ita. We got a proprietary secure version of W7 here, and after over a year, I still hate it. And the system doesn't seem to me to be any more stable: it still can't handle having IE, Word, Outlook, and Excel all open at once.

After using it for a little bit at home last night, I'm pretty sure I liked Vista better than Win7. @@

quester,

I cannot remember if you said: but sometimes a bad USB port has affected my ability to see and read/write from an external hard drive. This is especially true on my 3 year old macbook pro that had a failing motherboard. Check to see if other things can be read on the USB port. Do you have an ipod or iphone that can be charged using that port? Can you see if another computer can read it?

If disk utility does repair it, you need to buy another hard disk soon, like ASAP. if disk utility can repair it, get all your most important stuff off it and on to a computer/hard disk.

If disk utility does not work, there are other tools out there to extract information, but let's cross that bridge if we come to it.

After using it for a little bit at home last night, I'm pretty sure I liked Vista better than Win7. @@

heresy.

I hate the bottom strip situation.

ita, iirc, which I may not, since I did it by clicking things randomly, you can get rid of the transparency in the user-unfriendly "Personalizaton" on the Control Pattern. Once you pick a theme, click on colors and then uncheck transparency.

Now if I could only make Word stop having such bright colors in Windows 7.

I have been known to remove a chin here and there, not to mention many zits and shiny noses. Let me take a look at them.

Thanks so much, Ginger! Insent to your profile addy any minute!

Well, I seem to have found something called "Windows Classic" in the Personalisation section. I am that person, the one that needs "revert to classic" in every site/OS/software revamp. Let me not get started with bitching about the Office upgrade. I don't care if it's more intuitive for new Office users. How many new Office users are there, anyway? I can't work out how to style heading 4. This is important. Outlines are my lifeblood.

Okay, Windows Classic is really very classic. This is weird.

I hate the bottom strip situation.

That's funny because I love pinning because that way I have nothing on my desktop except the pretty picture. Yet, at the same time, I have the classic setting for everything else.

quester, I am having a similar problem with my iomega portable external hard drive. After chatting with iomega's support, they seem to think I should exchange the drive, and meanwhile I can't get to my data to move it. Not pleased.

If you can, try different cables, different USB ports, a different computer just in case something in the connection is the problem.