Dying computer trouble?

I don't know how much you know about the actual workings of your computer, Megan, but: if you have reasonable reasoning skills (which I think you do...), try downloading and running HijackThis! ... it checks your system and comes up with a list and/or logfile of everything that happens when you boot up your computer. What programs load automatically, what websites want to control your explorer, etc.

You have to either REALLY know what you're doing, or be able to suspect it. When in doubt, Open File Location and take a look at what else is in the folder for the setting or file in question. If there's a lot of links that end in "(file missing)" you can safely delete those (check the box on the left side), and should. They still take up a little memory as the computer tries to access them, y'see...

I'm 99% sure it isn't a virus, seeing as how my computer hasn't been on the internet AT ALL since I reformatted it.
I'm about 80% sure it's my hard drive dying. At this point, I am creating a sort of computer hospice, just trying to make things more comfortable while it dies.

If you are correct then I would bet money that you have all the skills required to replace a hard drive.

The computer is pretty old and since she is saving up to get a nice, new Mac to use instead....why would she replace the hard drive? I dunno.

Well, 100 GB hard drive is like $30, and a new Mac is substantially more. Sure, those hard drives are old models, but even with an archive of extremely-high-res images that would go with an artistic hobby, filling up a hundred gigs would take some friggin' time.

Depending on how long it'd take to save up for that Mac, a "new" (read: finding an old model that a store is trying to get rid of after the winter holidays) hard drive might be a good idea.

100 GB takes almost no time to fill up, and I'm sure she has extra hard drives. This is only the last straw in a series of craptacular failures by her computer, problems that entirely related to Windows. Macs don't have the problems she's been having, at least not nearly as often. Yes, Macs are expensive, but they are just so, so superior. And Megan works with Macs at work, so she knows what she's getting into.

Yeah, even I have to admit - as much as I loathe Macs, If you know how to use one well enough, they're a lot better for artists. I had to try and fix a mac laptop for my uncle last Christmas, to no avail because I know next to nothing about macs... and because he spilled a triple chai latte into the keyboard. But he owns a small recording studio in Nashville and uses macs for all of his music business.