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February 1, 2008
Dear CNET members,
Happy Friday! While you are reading this newsletter, I'm off to Las Vegas to hang out with some of my friends in preparation for Super Bowl Sunday. I know this may not sound like a big deal to you folks, but for me this is exciting. This would be the first time since my daughter was born almost two years ago to actually have a little time off just for myself, entirely away from work and family. Don't get me wrong--I do miss my family already, and I'm not even there yet. So if you're in Vegas this weekend--maybe I'll run into you. Anyway, let's get started with Helene's non-responsive external hard drive.
This week's question was a bit complicated, and I will own up to my mistake of not e-mailing Helene to get more information about her hard drive before presenting her question to you. It took one of our CNET forum moderators, John Wilkinson, to point out that without a model number, there were just too many variables--such as software in use, hard drive interface type (PATA/SATA), hard drive form factor (2.5-inch/3.5-inch) and so forth. (Thank you John!) The good news is that I was able to get hold of Helene and she e-mailed me back the model number of her drive, which I updated to the posting in the forums. But the bad news is by then most of you already responded. So I do apologize for my goof-up.
Now before some of you say, "Wow, what a waste of my time!" I want to let you know that your contributions week after week are invaluable to this community. After reading through your answers, even though this isn't my issue at hand, I learned a few things, and I'm sure others will too--and that is what is important. Because you never know when one of us will have to reference this discussion again to solve a problem like it--so nothing ever goes to waste, and I thank you for your efforts.
Now for this week there will be no helpfulness voting, as I will present to Helene our forum moderator John's answer--he did post an answer for Helene--knowing the model number. However I would have to say that even without a model number, many of you were on target with your responses and did provide many excellent solutions--from suggesting transferring her old drive to an external hard drive case, all the way to suggesting persistence in calling the manufacturer to resolve the issue. BTW, Helene in her e-mail said that finally after some time a representative from the manufacturer did contact her and took care of her problem. However, even then, she still has her old drive and insists on wanting to read all of your responses to know what she can do with it and what to do just in the event it were to happen to her again. So here you are, Helene, all your fellow community members' answers. Dive in, and I hope you find John's answer and all the others helpful. Thank you all for your time and efforts to help one another out! Have a great weekend everyone! Vegas, here I come!
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Member Question of the Week
Hi everyone. I bought a Western Digital 200GB external hard drive 90-plus days ago, and the buttons quit. I can't back up. I sent WD several e-mails, and no response from them. If I get another external hard drive, could I open this one, and transfer data to the new external one from the old? How would I do this? Also: If this can be done, could the one I have then be reformatted, put in a new casing? Does anyone know how to repair these on/off/auto buttons? Will I lose everything I backed up to the WD external drive? Please keep the explanation simple, as I'm a 63-year-old 'Nanny', IRS Reg. Tax Preparer. Thank you!
Submitted by:
Helene S.
Submitted by:
John Wilkinson
Submitted by:
The CNET community
 Previous week's Q&A
My question isn't a technical how-to one, however I hope you
do consider presenting it, as it is an important one. I know
everyone here is into technology, and I love technology as
I'm a gadget freak myself, but my question to you has a bit
of a twist in it and it has to do with the environment impact
of all these devices as they become more abundant, better,
larger, and more powerful. To give a couple of examples:
computers and plasma TVs. As you probably already know,
plasma TVs suck up a lot of power, probably a lot more than
our old tube TVs. And newer computer requires quite a lot
more energy to power as people like me require more and
larger hard drives, better graphics cards, and all those
added on devices to satisfy our computing needs. Now it
doesn't seem like much from an individual standpoint, but when
everyone adapts to these standards, I can only see more
energy being consumed globally and that is a concern,
especially with all the energy crisis going on, and of
course, global warming. So why aren't manufacture coming out
with Energy Star complaint consumer electronics as they do
for home appliances like refrigerators or washers? Shouldn't
this be their responsibility? Or is it our responsibility to
raise awareness to these manufactures to be more
environmentally conscience of the product they manufacture to
be more energy efficient?
I often do not turn off my computer for work purposes, but I
feel so guilty for leaving it on. Which leads me to my second
question. Where does our individual responsibility lie? Do
you make a conscience effort when buying electronics to see
if it is going to use unnecessary energy? What are some of
the things you do to do around your home (electronically
speaking) to ensure your part in conserving energy? I know
this isn't a typical submission, but I really want to hear
what people have to say in regards to this growing concern of
mine. Maybe people just don't care at the consumer electronic
level, which I hope isn't the case. Thank you all in advance
for your input and thoughts. Looking forward to reading them.
--Submitted by:
Rebecca D.
--Submitted by:
The CNET community
Thanks to all who contributed!
Community Buzz
 Each week we take a look at topics discussed in the forums.
Have fun and enjoy!
More from the forums
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Check out next week's question:
When I originally set up my new computer four years ago, I mistakenly partitioned the C drive too small. Now, after collecting many files, the C drive is more than 90 percent full, making it difficult to operate. I would like to remove the partition and use the entire hard drive as the C drive, giving 80GB total. The computer has a second hard drive I use for storage of 250GB. How do I remove the partition and still keep everything intact? What are my options? Thanks so much for your help. I am a retiree working with genealogy and family history. I'm running Windows XP. Thank you!
--Submitted by:
Richard J.
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Read John's answer
