Q: I have ripped (copied) more than 400 music CDs to my Windows Vista PC using Windows Media Player. From the PC, I could transfer the songs to my MP3 music player. Now I've got a new Windows 7 laptop. How can I transfer all those songs from my old PC to my new one and back up the song files?

Terry Knight, Mound

A: First, locate the songs on your old PC. When you ripped the CDs, Windows Media Player stored the songs as digital song files in the PC's Music folder. Within that folder, you'll find subfolders named after the artists who created the songs. Use Windows Explorer to copy these folders to a USB flash drive or an external hard drive.

To do this, right-click on a music folder from the old computer and from the resulting menu choose "copy." Then open the flash drive or external hard drive in Windows Explorer, right-click and choose "paste." To save time, you can define several folders at once by opening the Music folder and holding down the left mouse button while you drag the mouse over several folders. The area around the folders will turn blue. Then, copy and paste the group of folders.

When you're done, connect the flash drive or external hard drive to the new computer, copy the song files from the storage device and paste the files in the Music folder on the new PC. You can leave the songs on the flash drive or hard drive as backup copies.

You will be moving a lot of data, likely more than 20 gigabytes. Make sure that your portable storage device has enough capacity available. If it doesn't, you'll have to move the data in segments. Moving the song files will take from 25 minutes to a few hours depending on the speed of your USB connections.

Q: My new Hewlett-Packard touch screen laptop constantly loses its Wi-Fi connection to my home network. HP's service people tried to do remote repairs by having me connect the PC to my wireless router with an Ethernet cable, but nothing worked. Then, they replaced the PC's Wi-Fi card, but the Wi-Fi worked only 15 minutes before failing. HP now says the problem is probably caused by my Internet service provider, but I doubt that because I have two older HP laptops that work just fine with my home Wi-Fi network. What can I do?

Tony Capraro, Manchester, N.H.

A: Because the replacement Wi-Fi card didn't work, I suspect there's a flaw in the PC's main circuit board. Tell HP that your new PC is defective and that you want to exchange it under your one-year limited warranty, which covers "a defect in materials or workmanship." Under the warranty, HP has the option to "repair, replace, or refund."

Your other options are to connect the computer to the Wi-Fi router by Ethernet cable, or to buy a USB Wi-Fi adapter for about $40. That adapter would take the place of the Wi-Fi card inside your PC, though it may not work if the flaw is in the new computer.

E-mail tech questions to steve.j.alexander@gmail.com or write to Tech Q&A, 425 ­Portland Av. S., ­Minneapolis, MN 55488. Include name, city and telephone number.