Computer help?

At my house, we're Macintosh fanatics, so I don't know if the following advice will be relevant. Also, I haven't read all the posts in this thread so I don't know if the following suggestion has been covered. Hard disk drives have become as cheap as water (almost), even the external ones. If your computer has a USB 2.0 connector (the older USB 1.1 is way to slow for this to be considered) or firewire, you can buy an external USB 2.0 or firewire hard disk drive that you just plug into wall power and then connect to your computer with one cable. I've seen 120-Gigabyte external drives for $50. If PCs work like Macs, you can then load your operating system disk (I think this is Windows XP Home in your case) onto the new drive and make that your system drive. For any software that isn't working right, just reload or download a fresh copy onto this new drive. You can also copy files, folders and applications over to this new external drive. You can now also run a disk repair utility on your internal drive, which is a dangerous thing to do when that internal drive is your only drive and/or your system drive. This fix assumes the following:1) you have an USB 2.0 or firewire port on your computer2) you have the original Windows operating system disk that (hopefully) came with your computer or that you bought to upgrade your computer (I think you can buy Windows XP home for about $60 if you don't have it)3) you have $504) the PC/Windows system allows the operations I describe above. (any other posters with PCs care to comment on this)This is cheaper and less intimidating than the process of buying a whole new computer, but if your using a 900Mhz computer and can afford it, you should certainly think about entering the 21st century (at least as far as electronic technology is concerned) and buying a new unit. The money you spent on the external computer won't be wasted. It will work fine with the new computer and might be a good unit to use far monthly backups. (Having gone through all the aggravation you have suffered, once your problem is resolved, you will have learned your lesson about backups, and will certainly perform monthly backups for at least the next two, maybe even three, months.)If even this approach seems too intimidating, your last resort is the SBE solution. SBE stands for Single's Bar Expert. Just go to your local single's bar. find some guy who has all the expertise you need, and get him top fix your computer. He will not expect anything in return for his help.

While some might see this thread on your computer predicament as outside the scope of the EvC forum, I see an ironic parallel between this thread and several others, mainly proposed by you, Faith, that are directly on topic. For, as subsequent to the Fall, god not only cursed mankind with disease and death, but also with mechanical breakdowns, wear, tear, and computer bugs. But god is not without mercy, and he has provided you with exactly what you need to confront and solve these problems that afflict you: Men! And in his limitless wisdom, he has provided you with exactly what a charming young lady such as yourself needs to attract men and get them to do your bidding: Chocolate! So your next move should be to go out into the world and buy some chocolate (combined with peanuts and nuggat, if you really want to play hardball).

All the public libraries in our area have (free) computer/internet access and include printer use, also usually free for a few pages and maybe $.10 after that. You can call them to check on their policies.

Boy, do you guys make me happy that I'm in the Mac universe! To start up in the OS CD, all you have to do is insert the OS CD (or if the computer is so screwed up the CD drawer won't open, just restart while holding down the eject key, which allows you to insert the CD), then restart while holding down the 'c' key. The computer then restarts and runs off the OS CD (or any bootable CD) and you can perform lots of operations, including browsing the internet and examining/fixing/initializing the hard drive. In fact, you don't even need a hard drive in the computer! Of course, things go slower than they do off a hard drive, but at least you're not dead in the water.

Haven't you noticed that when a man gives a lady a box of chocolates he winds up eating most of them himself? The lady is right if she thinks he has just one thing on his mind - just a little too optimistic about what that is. Sorry to clutter your computer's brief bouts of sanity with irrelevancies. I'll sign off this thread for now. Hope your problems are soon resolved in the most pleasing manner. Bye.

Sorry to harp on my pet solution, but if you are planning to back up many gigabytes of data you will need a fairly high capacity thumb-drive and that can get expensive ($80 for a 4 gigabyte). I've seen EXTERNAL CD read/write drives for about $20 and I buy CD writable blanks for 10 cents (These store about 650 Megabytes). These hook up to your computer in exactly the same way as the thunb drives, so no additional complexity is involvedA few years ago I bought a PC for my daughter and her family. I bought it from Dell because I could select to have their service rep in her area come out and assemble/install the unit with all the attachments and software. He also spent about two hours training them how to use it and answering all their questions. Dell of course charges extra for this service, but given you queasiness over starting with a new computer, the peace of mind may well be worth it. On of the greatest values of this service is that my daughter now new a real person to call and ask for advice, assistance, or service. I'm no great fan of Dell's, but this might be worth considering.Edited by AnswersInGenitals, : No reason given.

Can you post her a picture of the USB symbol? I'm too lazy right now to try to do thatr.