Second try: (I bumped a key and my message vanished--I'd like to know what key that was, to avoid it!)

I will be getting her computer in a couple of weeks, once we know what all features will be best. It'll be another Dell (she is accustomed to them). She'll be the envy of her brother in having her own computer and possibly in her bedroom (though I have a nice living room table I may use because I need to be able to check it and she might just be like a lioness guarding her cubs if I let her put it in her room. . . )

I'll have it set up for several weeks to work out the bugs and to decide what sort of backup system to use.

I've been installing the new equipment this evening. I put in the new drive, partitioned the disk (I'm using one, the rest isn't formatted to use yet--that can come later). Operating system, productivity software, firewall, etc. It took a few tries to get the wireless network hooked up--they never seem to go easily, but I think it is okay now. Downloading 50 updates from Microsoft right now.

Evening one, and a lot is done, but there are many more things to do on this computer before I turn it back over to the kids. For a "later" project, I put the old hard drive into the second slot but I didn't attach it to the harness and power cord. I'll leave that for after I have the new drive working okay, then we'll go take a peek at the other one.

SRS