> Since ure about to ditch your current install anyway theres a > better way still. First BACKUP. If u have any data u care about. > Norton Ghost would be ideal Thanks for the advice. Although I've been trying to avoid doing it because of the time involved, I may as well suck my guts in and give the machine a complete clean-up/overhaul. Chances are it will take all weekend, at least, to burn the drives to CD, format them and then start with a clean machine. Important data, notably anything "I" create such as PIC programs and images, are routinely written to CD/floppy so they're always safe. I've had the same two 8GB drives for years and they rarely get over half-full. Downloaded pdfs, exes etc go straight to CD. As long as Win, mail, web, and micro tools are up and running then life will pretty much carry on as normal. Other progs can be re-installed as and when needed. Might even bump up the RAM or upgrade the uP if the mood strikes me -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.