We spent much too much time this week tracking down a problem with a 15-inch PowerBook. The problem, which initially seemed to be a disk problem, turned out to be a disk problem. After several attempts to copy information, reinstall the operating system and get the machine working again I finally stooped to running Apple Hardware Test. It is not quite as low on the ladder as actually reading the manual but the proximity makes many geekish folk uncomfortable. Of course it took about 3 minutes to diagnose the disk as being bad. Not the hours of frustration and false starts provided by choosing to "do it my way". Lesson learned. At least until next time.