Narsil wrote: "I drefragged and then did a physical disc check to write all bad sectors off the Hard discs - there are always a couple." You're obviously technically astute, and your level-headed words regarding pre-preparation are wise. Having said so, I'd make one strong suggestion: ALWAYS do your ScanDisk (or whatever similar disc evaluation/repair) BEFORE you defrag. That way, bad sectors will be blocked off so that the defragmentation process won't rewrite data to those sectors. It can certainly happen if you do it the other way around. Also, as we all know, defragging can take a long time. Sometimes Windows defragmenter will stop in the middle of the process if it finds bad sectors, so again, ScanDisc first so as not to waste time. Finally, you'll speed up both processes tremedously if you run them in "safe mode." Most PC users can enter safe mode by hiting the F8 key at startup, usually during or immediatetly after the BIOS screen. For those who don't know, only critical drivers are loaded for safe mode, which will speed up your system check and repair apps by a long shot.