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you can try a memory test (RAM) with both sticks installed, using (free) Windows Memory Diagnostic at http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp. Leave it to run overnight. If the fault is detected, try four combinations of sticks/slots (each of the two sticks in each of two slots).

You can try a freeware tool named Zero Assumption Disk Space Visualizer at http://www.z-a-recovery.com/tools-visualizer.htm to find out and delete what "eats" your disk space.

You can use a new hard drive as a folder on your existing drive. Create a new folder on the existing volume, then use Disk Management to mount a new volume into that folder (use right click on the volume, "Change drive letter and path"). Be advised though that such a configuration has some funny...

Yes, you are right, and I don't think you would have any problems with Windows 7 and XP compatibility.

SATA 1 throughput is 150 MBytes per second. SATA 2 is 300 MBytes per second. SATA 3 is 600 MBytes per second. Rotational hard drive can output about 100 MBytes per second at best. SSD can deliver in excess of 250 MB/sec. So, the port speed is only a factor with SSDs, not with rotational...

As johnb35 said, you should go to Disk Management. Maybe you need to format the flash drive and/or assign a drive letter to it.

If you run CHKDSK /F, it would try to fix whatever problem it finds. If you just run CHKDSK, it would list the problems it found.

On another computer, burn a Windows Memory Diagnostic CD (http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp). Boot form this CD and perform a memory test on the damaged computer. Once the memory is tested OK, boot from the Windows installation CD, and run CHKDSK to check the disk. Exact specifics...

What was the filesystem type on the external hard drive? What filesystem are you trying to format it for? Regardless of what filesystem type you need, try to format the drive to NTFS via Disk Management. if this works, you can then reformat the drive to FAT or FAT32 if needed.

If you right click the external hard drive in Windows Explorer, and select "Properties", what file system type is displayed there?

It is normal to hear the drive activity when you are surfing the web, because the internet temporary files are being written all the time. On top of that different drives have differnt leveles of noise, and the noise depends on the chassis and mounting. If you still suspect something is...

Maybe there is not enough power to the drive? If you have a drive connected to the USB hub, rather than directly to the port, it is possible that there is not enough power for all the devices simultaneously connected to the hub.

Get an USB hard drive box, put a new drive into it, clone onto that new drive via USB, swap the drives. Should work.

Since we have BIOS detecting 500 GB OK, we can rule out a too old motherboard not detecting a large hard drive. In a similar way, this cannot be a jumper configuration issue or a HPA clipping issue, because the BIOS would not detect 500GB capacity in any of these cases. Hence the only option...

If you do not have an extra SATA (serial) power cable from your power supply, you can purchase the converter from the PATA (parallel) power cable to SATA, most likely available at the same place which sells SATA data cables.

If it is a brand new drive, maybe you just need to format the drive. The new non formatted drives won't show in My computer.

You should get the hard drive out of the laptop and connect the drive to another known-good Windows system (e.g. using an USB box), so you boot from the known-good Windows installation, not from your laptop drive. If the drive is visible in Windows Explorer then just copy the data over to the...

Check that the jumpers on the drives are set to Master (or Single on some drives). This is a requirement with certain USB-to-IDE adapters. If you have some sort of USB hub, get rid of it and plug the USB cable directly to the laptop port.

After you back up, consider checking the disk SMART status by using something like SpeedFan. Also, how much free space do you have on that drive?

In BIOS setup, also check the boot order. If you want to boot from Windows installation CD, then CD-ROM should be listed first in the boot device list. Looks like the computer tries to boot from the hard drive first.