PROBLEM RESOLVED.

I called Dell Technical Support, where I had/have a prepaid software support program good for a year, up to four software incidents. I had three incidents left, now two left.

The agent had me run a repair section from my Windows 7 distribution disk, and then, with my cooperation, took remote control of my computer. He renamed a couple of .exe files and did some other stuff which I couldn't follow, although he patiently explained what he was doing, step by step.

I asked him to remove the password(s) entirely, because they serve no purpose in our household (just my Beautiful Wife and me) and just make for extra delay and aggravation. Then he exited and rebooted to test it, it seemed to work fine, and he had me power down and come back and test it myself. Fine. Then he gave me control of the computer back, and told me he'll check with me in maybe a week to see that it's acting right.

The whole thing may have taken three quarters of an hour. Frankly, it's the smoothest support call I've ever had with India--or anywhere else, for that matter.

Thank you, everyone, for your interest and suggestions. I'm vastly relieved not to have lost the hard drive or any of its contents.

Dave Oesterreich