Wow, I feel like a new member.  My computer went down a month ago, and I worked on it myself for a while, then bought a recommended program (AVG Internet Security) which was supposed to cure the problem but was completely worthless.  So I finally brought it to a local repair shop (Not the one that had a smiling picture of GW Bush on the wall thanking him for his contribution).  It took them a while but they tracked down the problem and I’m back and running. 

I now know what Robinson Crusoe felt like by himself on the desert Island.  Fortunately, my man Friday (my stepson) let Doug know what was going on. 

Only one problem I just saw is that all the posts since I’ve been gone are shown as having been read, so I’ll have to go through everything from my last time. 

Occam

Welcome back!

I was wondering where you were.  I need a grandkid, which I don’t have, to keep this machine running. 

Good to see you back Occam. I hate when that stuff happens. I found a solution that seems to avoid a lot of headaches. When ever I get anew computer I make a “disk image” using Acronis True Image software. Basically it makes a copy of your hard drive and all of your settings on an external drive. If things ever start getting funky you just restore from that disk image and your computer is returned to the exact status it was in when you created the image.

I usually make an initial image right out of the box and then another after I install all my essential software. You can also amke periodic incrmental backups from time to time which will give you more options when you restore. Doing this has saved my butt a bunch of times and the software has paid for itself ($50) many times over.

Welcome back!

For a Mac you can connect the new one and the old one (assuming it actually works of course) and transfer all your stuff to the new computer using Migration Assistant.

Routine back ups to an external drive are also a good idea. I currently use two mirrored drives as my back up drive.

Take care,

Derek

Thanks for the advice.  Since I have a PC I’ll look for the program you mentioned, Mac.

Occam

Get a Mac.

I wondered where you were. It was rather quiet here without you! Welcome back, with or without the ‘.’!