Steve, thanks for the explanation, I understand the reasoning now.

Train, thanks for the link.

Our plan was to transfer as much as possible (photos, documents, files, programs, etc) from the original SATA hd to the IDE hd, then reformat the SATA and give it a fresh installation. We wanted the ability to use both hard drives, one for daily use, the other as a backup. Can we accomplish this after the SATA is reformatted?