Sounds like the way to go, Bot. I got another HD as a boot drive and kept the old HD for the data files on it. The Exchange parameters are at the office so I won't know until tomorrow if Outlook remains flaky... which is what started me hating the world in the first place. Whatever was the root of problem I described in the OP degraded over half a day to where the PC wouldn't boot at all. It would stop at a blue screen with a C000021a error or something like that whether booting in safe or regular mode. I don't know if the OS or HD went south but the new HD and fresh XP installation is humming nicely. I hope I'm not taxing the power supply with 2 HDs. Thanks for everyone's patience and help.

Sixto
87 300D^2