I finally bit the bullet and bought a hard drive for backing up my system (P3, 733mg, XPSP1 home). It is a internal Western Digital 80g. I also got a USB enclosure for it so I can use it externally. I followed the enclosure directions and set the jumper on master. My computer would not even recognize the HD. I then set the jumper to single. This was recognized. I used the wizard that came with the HD to partition and format. It set at 1 partition and started formating. After 30 minutes of nothing happening, I stopped the program. I unplugged everything and started over. This time I specified custom setup and made 2 partitions of about 40g each. The computer restarted and the 2 partitions showed up in explorer as drive G and F. When I clicked on G, it said it was not formated and would I like to. I said yes. Again, after 30 minutes of apparantly nothing happening, I stopped the formating. According to Dell, the format should not take more than about 15 minutes.

Did I mess up the HD by stopping the process? I am exchanging it for a new one tonight on the way home from work, but I thought you guys could give me some tips on what I might be doing wrong and how to fix it.

I look forward to your sage advise!

Jeff