I just bought an external hd and I want to back up my mp3s. I know all you do is drag it to the new hd, but is there a way where you can shrink the size of your whole mp3 folder so that way it doesnt take up a whole space, for example.........a data cd, you can save lots of mp3s instead of having it as a reg cd....well you get the point. Anyone out there know what Im mean?

Not even remotely - mp3 is a compressed file format, and you're not about to shrink it any more. Maybe you have it backwards? CD audio tracks are much less efficient, and a CD burned as such only holds about 80 minutes of recorded audio - you could put 700Mb of files on that same disk (which would be considerably more) If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't, I'll just respond, cleverly --Donald Rumsfeld

gotcha....thanks

Sure thing - the only reason to burn sound files as audio tracks is so they may be played on standalone CD players - although newer ones can also play mp3's If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't, I'll just respond, cleverly --Donald Rumsfeld

ok now I got that settled, I have all my i portant stuff out into my new hd. Im going to intsall Windows XP. I am running ME, 128 mb of ram. Is there anything I should look out for or should know before installing it, does XP require a higher memory?????

51MB Memory and 20GB Hard Drive and P3 would consider the minimum to run OK

All Operating Systems have their minimum requirements - 128Mb will be enough (technically) but 256 - 512 is considered by many to be the minimum for it to run well, depending on what you use the computer for Personally, I'd say at least 256Mb for basic use If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't, I'll just respond, cleverly --Donald Rumsfeld