Back again - thanks for advice. It's a laptop, so extra drives would have to be external - I've been thinking along those lines anyway. (But why is the Win98 Backup less useful than Win95's?). (The other "why do something so irritating?" point is that the computer did not come with a Windows CD-Rom, but a restore to factory one. It means that putting things right takes days.)

I've just ordered a new version of the utilities I have (McAfee) so that I can manage things better. (I hope - I'm currently getting reports that nothing is wrong.) I'm uninstalling some new software. Then I will save my files as zip files, so that I control where they are, and only need put in one disk for one set of files. Then I will reformat.

Then I will go out into the nearby woods and scream.

Then I will reinstall all the software and my files, and all will be well until the next time.

Meanwhile, I will access the ancient music site at school, and then email myself with it.

By the way, we were discussing Ancient Greek schools at school, and which subjects we study which they did not. Some nice recursive suggestions like Ancient Greek - and IT. Does anyone else agree that an abacus just might fall into that category? Or has heard the story about the Japanese IT department with one in a glass case with the words - in case of emergency - break glass?

Penny