Okay, spoke to the computer guy. Perhaps we can put this puppy to rest, now.

In January, I am now told, friend(F) and little brother (LB) took it to the computer guys after it went wonky after trying to download some music. Computer Guy (CG) told me he ran diagnostics on it and according to Dell's own, the hard drive failed due to "shock." He said that could have been from a drop, a power surge, etc. So, he installed a new hard drive, setting it up in the LB's name as he didn't know it was my dau.'s. He also noted it didn't have a virus protector, even though I had loaded AVG in the original hard drive, so he would not guarantee it against virus, etc. He also thinks he gave back the old hard drive, with all of the lost stuff, as he didn't have it in his box of old HDs with customer tickets on them. He's going to look for it, though. He didn't try to recover lost files because he wasn't authorised to by LB at the time, not knowing about my dau.

So...today, he is going to check it for virus, malware, etc. get it up and running in HER name and get it back to her. After that, she WILL get my email with links for AVG, Ad-Aware, and Kerio Firewall and get them installed ASAP and she will NOT let the darn thing out of her sight, again.

And we thought the 8 year old grandsons might cause problems with it if they weren't careful!

Thanks a million to all of you for your help and perseverance.

kat