my apologies jazzmammal your advice is always welcome but i am convinced that the pc spec is not the issue. windows update works just fine and the machine updated to KB450658 yesterday. previous features updates have gone well but i'm inclined to trust microsoft on this as the legend that says the pc is not quite ready persists on the windows update page even when pressing 'update now' which is the traditional way to force a features update.

my original post was to see if anyone else here had the internal hard drive problem and it appears that although it was a problem for some people in the world at large forumites don't have it and that is reassuring.

i'm also inclined to wait rather than force the issue because of the age of my audigy2 ZS which the internet tells me some people find non-functional after 1903.

so - and i may be wrong - i believe the pc spec is not the issue. i'm going to sit tight because as another post says 1903 does not deliver anything i really need and as long as microsoft keeps updating my current build, it will remain secure and safe.

so thank you for your advice - not just on this topic but BIAB related issues too.

and as for the british intelligence services my experience was with GCHQ not MI6!