I've had my notebook up and running for a while now. HP/Compaq was actually really good for a change about getting me a replacement hard drive (still under warranty) and I went through the tedious process of installing the OS, reinstalling every piece of software I own and restore all my preferences. It was relatively painless, except the part about the crashed hard drive.

There's about 34 gigs on the old HD. I don't need it all. It's mostly program files. But I do want some of the files, namely photos that I hadn't gotten around to backing up (such an idiot). I bought a little plastic 2.5" USB enclosure at CompUSA so I could try to pull some of the data off there, but it's been touch and go.

Sometimes the OS doesn't recognize the drive. Sometimes it does. Sometimes, it recognizes it, I can download files and right in the middle the connection drops for no reason. I think I need an enclosure with its own power source. I have to get down to Fry's to see what they have soon because I need to ship the drive back to HP lest they charge me for it.