update

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Well, with some help from the hardware ace at my better half's place of employment, I have

1. pulled the hard drive from the new computer (easy as pie; nice engineering; thank you Dell -- oops, there are separate wires just for a little fan on the hard drive's support casing ... can I unplug that and run the drive without the fan? Hardware Ace: "yep").

2. opened up the old computer, determined that I only have power supplies for two hard drives, and there are two in the machine already. So I unplugged the newer hard drive from its power supply and data cable, and plugged the new machine's drive into same. No way the old machine can be closed in this configuration -- ok to run it wide open? Hardware Ace: "yep."

3. brought the external hard drive into the other room, so I have something to which I can back up the stuff that needs backing up. An external hard drive is really a Very Good Thing indeed..............

And .......... it works!!!!!!!!!! Backing stuff up to the external drive as we speak!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been taking loooooooots of pictures, to make sure I know how things were, so I have a better chance of putting them back correctly................

I'll back up everything I think I need, then when my better half gets home, he can do likewise, and then we can work on putting everything back....................

To quote an old friend, "S'awright so far!"

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