Oh blast! I could have done without the computer going 'phut' this morning. What it actually did was post me up a nasty message saying my system wouldn't burst into life, however, I could try booting up with my disk. After three or four tries at that, it was obvious that the optical drive was getting indigestion and not reading anything, so I gave up being a technician and worked at keeping my panic under control.

All my important folders are on my computer. It's about 3 weeks since I did a folders back-up to an external drive. I wasn't concerned about reloading programmes, pain though that would have been, it was the access to my folders that niggled at me. What if my system had died? What if it was in need of memory...it's not that long since I put memory into it? What if.....

My friendly expert answered his phone and offered to visit me this evening, saying he'd bring some extra bits with him in view of what I had tried already.

By the time he left, the machine was up and running, I'd lost and reloaded my screen saver, (I'll have to) delete the defunct link but that can wait, and I had been encouraged to think about buying a brand new all singing, speedy dancing system. I don't think my expert was entirely surprised to find I wasn't in the market for a replacement of my I.T. arrangements. I am perfectly happy to keep going with what I have currently got.

:wave: :DD