>>Alex;
>>
>>Everyone tells me I worry too much - from the time I was a young child. I always look at the possibilities of something going wrong and the consequences. As I was a Boy Scout I like to “be prepared”!
>>
>>I can obtain removable hard disk trays for about $15 at a local store in Santa Clara, California. These trays have a rack which has a small fan built in and a connector at the rear. They have models for IDE and SCSI. There is a lock, which prevents the tray from being removed from the rack. With this model you turn off the computer, unlock the tray and pull it out by its handle. Then it is a simple matter to plug in another tray with the desired hard disk into the rack. The rack takes up one slot on the front of your computer. You can use more than one tray on a computer if you want to and have the room.
>>
>>Just be sure to properly label each tray or they soon resemble someone’s audio/video tape collection without labels. Now what is this? :)
>
>I started to use these racks about a year ago, and find it great. I don't have many hard disks yet, but plan to buy them eventually.
>
>I used to use ZIP disks, but with current prices, 100 MB ZIP disks cost about 60 times more (per GB) than hard disks.
>
>Hilmar.

Hilmar;

Having these removable trays is like having multiple computers. For about $110 you can get a 40 G IDE hard disk (Western Digital) 7200 RPM with tray and have a "new computer".

I advised a friend to do this when he announced he was going to install Red Hat and have a Windows/Linux dual boot system. He did not take my advice and attempted to load Linux on his hard disk without back up. You can guess the rest. He was upset because he lost some very important information (business) and his address book.

Never believe a salesman! :) The salesman told my friend he would have no problem creating a dual boot system over his then present system.

Tom