every mishap has a silver lining... so i figured out how to muck around with the inside of the work computer, remove the hard drive, bring it home, fix it up with the computer @ home, get all the stuff in the hard drive out and now i have the data all backed up both in the home computer AND on CD-ROM - very kiasu :p..... quite an achievement for me.. really... opening the metal casing outside the CPU and looking into it is like peering into the frightful unknown for me....the never-before-treaded dimension.... so now at least i learnt what the data cable is and why there is so much wiring in the computer.. they are actually power supply plugs supplying power to all the different drives and there is actually a spare "socket" to stick in another hard drive if i want too... ummm..... cool..... i think it wouldn't be too long before i can actually figure out how to set up my own home computer! :) *pat pat* to myself....

what it looks like now..