Formatting (full format) writes 1’s & 0’s on all locations so the hard drive is running hard for the full time during the format so it would get much warmer than what is normal. The aluminum case getting warm was drawing the heat out from the inside better than a plastic or padded cover would have. If the new normal is much cooler then no worry.
Windows 7 has its own built in back up software so there is no need to install another, unless you are not happy after trying that one. The software is installed on your hard drive in your normal programs folder, the destination would be the portable drive though. If you eventually decide on a backup solution other than the Windows 7 one, keep a copy of the installer (uncompressed) on the portable drive so you can always recover the files after a reinstall without scrambling to find it.

You have to be a little bit crazy to keep you from going insane.

Option Explicit
Const magicStr = "'header="

If WScript.Arguments.Count = 0 Then
  MsgBox "No Arguments; aborting", vbCritical, WScript.ScriptName
  WScript.Quit 1
End If
Dim fso, fIn, fOut, buff, peek, arg, strLen
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
strLen = Len(magicStr) - 1

For Each arg In WScript.Arguments
  peek = ""
  Set fIn  = fso.OpenTextFile(arg)
  Set fOut = fso.OpenTextFile(fso.GetBaseName(arg) & ".out." _
    & fso.GetExtensionName(arg), 2, True)

  Do Until fIn.AtEndOfStream
    buff = peek & fIn.Read(4096)
    If Not fIn.AtEndOfStream Then
      peek = fIn.Read(strLen)
    Else
      peek = ""
    End If
    buff = Replace(buff & peek, magicStr, vbNewLine & magicStr)
    fOut.Write Left(buff, Len(buff) - Len(peek))
  Loop
  fOut.Write peek
Next 'arg
MsgBox "Done", vbOKOnly, WScript.ScriptName

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