
I learned that I made a foolish mistake to keep My Documents, bookmarks, and other files on the old hard drive. I should have backed up those special files onto a CD or DVD. Duh! I think it takes this situation to start a good habit.

Feel free to leave your story of your hard drive losses.
Tomorrow, I'll try a new IDE cable and give it one more try. If that's no good, I'll dissemble the old hard drive and take a hammer to the disk.