I submitted the last post before I finished :confused:

Oh well....at least some of the brain cells still work.

I am on my new computer. It is a real beauty! I've been setting it up and learning Vista. I did finally get info off the external hard drive onto my refurbished computer. I'm going to send the real hard drive and the external hard drive from the old computer to my cousin's husband. He's a computer person. I have a feeling that if anyone can get more info off of it, he can. I'm really, really stubborn!
I want my stuff!!!

Good luck getting your stuff back. It can be a pain, but it's well worth it in the end if you have photos and such.

I have the photos and I also have the memory card from my camera, thank goodness!!! I would really be upset if I lost those.

Actually, you put it in perspective for me. I really haven't lost that much. I saved a lot of info on my computer, but I think I may have a lot of it. I have to go through what got retrieved. I kept some legal stuff on there, etc. Now I know I have to back this kind of stuff up on a flash drive.

This new computer does an automatic backup every day, but after 2 days, I have run out of backup space and am being told to buy more. I have to research this. It's a trial Norton package.

I am really disgusted with the way computers are sold these days. My Microsoft Office, Norton package, and I'm not sure if anything else, are trial packages. You have to buy them after a certain time. I never had that happen before. Computers came with certain programs and then some. Now, they want to charge me for backup memory??? I also have my own Norton program, CD, registration # and all. The computer would not allow me to load it. I'll wait until the trial period is over and try again. I already paid for Norton!

If you keep having problems, send me a PM. My hubby is GREAT with stuff like that and he can walk you through step by step to help you get everything you need.

My husband was a little lost when he got his laptop. He thought there would be a nice word program on it, but all it had was a notebook type. Can't really do very much editing with it. I think he may end up buying the MSWord separatly.

So Judy...tell all about your computer.

I use to have Norton, now I use free stuff that my computer guy put on and have never had a problem. www.avast.com and, I don't have the web address, you can search it, Malwarebytes'Anti-Malware. I think it is all in the same program.

My hubby who is a computer science student seconds the recommendation for avast. It's what he uses on his own computers. He's tried EVERYTHING and it's his favorite.