Rich Rankin wrote: (say that fast 5 times) >This is something I am working with also. We just received a copy of our >support contract only to learn in 8 months, most of the hardware will be out >of support. Now I have to approach the powers to be that we need to adjust >the 2 year budget that was signed 1 month prior. > There are many 3rd party hardware support vendors that will continue to support equipment long after HP drops it. Since hardware support equates to replacing parts that fail (when is the last time an CE "fixed" a disk drive?) the biggest question is really whether or not the vendor has an adequate supply of reliable replacement parts. If you are talking systems, I wouldn't rush out and replace a system that is working just because it is no longer under support. For disk drives you have to consider how much useful life the drives have. Sure you can find plenty of replacements, but how many disk failures can you afford. Often it is more economical to purchase several spares of your own and drop support all together for things like tape drives, external DDS drives, external disk drives and printers. Doug. Doug Werth Beechglen Development Inc. [log in to unmask] Cincinnati, Ohio The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Beechglen Development. They might, but not necessarily. They represent solely the opinions of the author.