[at-l] Computer geeks only - everyone else delete

[DaRedhead@aol.com (DaRedhead@aol.com)]

Well, gee guys, here I am.  First, thanks for all the advice.  (special 
kudo's to Mags, who was the only one who came close to the problem, though ;))

First - reinstalling windows 98 a) did NOT erase my files and b) did NOT 
work.  
Neither did booting from a system disk.  Windows just wouldn't work.
Figured out the problem with the a drive - my dang floppy is b, not a, go 
figure ;).  So I actually did save my pokemon ;) and a few critical files, 
but like AN IDIOT forgot to save my favorites from explorer :( so I lost all 
of my links.  Oh well.
So I bit the bullet, and used the quickrestore cds - figured what the hey - 
it isn't earthshattering, I'll just have to do a lot of reinstalling and I'll 
lose a whole lot of stuff I won't remember I had until I want it again.
Guess what?  It didn't work.
Yes, the quickrestore disks acted like they were working - and then the very 
same thing happened, and kaplooey - windows just refused to work.  But THIS 
time it gave me an error I could repeat to compaq customer service.  The 
"system halted" had me worried though, I must admit.
But the commies wouldn't answer the phone.  So I called my bestest techie 
friend back home, and as usual, he came thru for me.  Of course, I haven't 
talked to him on the phone since right after Mom died, but hes one of those 
friends I can just say "Help" and it's like I just talked to him yesterday :)
He said "It says what? Ooooh, that sounds bad."  He always says things like 
that before he saves my computer :) Then he proceeded to walk me thru a few 
processes in dos (which I still could get to), starting with Mags suggestion 
(although I didn't KNOW mags suggested it til after we got it fixed).  That 
didn't work.  However, plain old fdisk did - so we deleted partitions and 
stuff, THEN created a new partition, THEN ran the quick restore disks.  
Voila.  Here I am (using aol 4, need to download the upgrade again, darnit.)  
So I saved a very few things (didn't have many floppies, and would you 
believe this???? I forgot I even HAD a zip drive until I watched the drivers 
being installed for it.  What an idiot I am.  Coulda saved a whole lot more . 
.. . ), but I'm trying not to cry over all those great links I've been 
collecting, especially to at journals :( because two hours ago I thought I 
had a totally broken computer.  So - I guess I"m happy.  Thank you to every 
one who wrote - I appreciated the help.  I tried all the suggestions :)

Again - thanks (and did you ever notice how many computer geeks there are on 
this list? ;)

The Redhead