Update

So it's been almost a week, thought I would update you all on my technical difficulties. Short version: I'm still on my Mom's computer, and am currently weighing 3-figure repairs vs. new machine.

( Stick a fork in it, it's done. Or is it? )

Opinions and advice are welcome.


PS: While going to all these computer service places, I've been asking around what was the best antivirus, and no two informants have said the same thing. My sister recommends Norton 360, but no one else has so far. Best Buy recommended Kaspersky and shuddered when I told them I used to use AVG. The guy who burned the Vista disk for me recommended Microsoft Security Essentials (free) and said AVG had actually been good until recently, adding that Kaspersky was a good paid one, but perhaps not as good as NOD32. Unlike "most reliable computers" (Vista Disk Guy did second the good opinion of Lenovo on that), if you Google "most reliable antivirus," you'll basically get hot mess of conflicting opinions, and RL doesn't seem much better. The only thing that's clear is that you can't have more than one.

And another twist...

Just when I thought I couldn't get any more confused.

seirai suggested Ubuntu Linux as more malware-resistant than Windows, so I looked at it, thought what the heck, made myself an install disk, and tried it.

It seems to be working. 0_0

I'm not ready to accept this as a solution, because trying to use it is like "AGH, I don't know how to do ANYTHING" (I might like to play with it, but I'm not so keen on being forcibly tossed in), but the fact that this works might suggest that it isn't the hard drive and thus repairs might not be as expensive as I feared. Monday I'll call the repair place again and see what they think; at this point having them at least run diagnostics is looking more worth it.

(Although I am becoming fond of Windows 7... Well, if I can hold out a bit longer, they're starting to talk of Windows 8, and hopefully it'll keep the good parts...)