Peter,

I feel your pain. Being a computer tech I understand how frustrating and exhausting fixing what should work FINE is like.

I ditto abacus advise. I have everything near and dear to me backed up on an external hd. Back it up and disconnect it. USB or Firewire works great. As long as your Win98 laptop is not connected to a network you should be fine. You can password protect win98 to keep it safe.

I have repaired both PC's and Macs and find that both have issues. Newer systems seem to be more stable. However, I recall a time when Macs were unbreakable. Not so anymore. I still and always will use external media to back up my important info.

There is comfort in knowing you are not alone. These kinds of time consuming problems happen to all of us.

I used to build computers for people based on how they would use them. I.E. a gaming machine or to do homework on. In todays world a computer is used for EVERYTHING! It plays games, does the internet, works exclusive software for music production and video productions. The list goes on and on. For a system to do all of that it needs alot of power and maintenance. Something we as consumers just do not take the time to do and manufactures are not going to push it as when it breaks they will sell you another!

I wish you well. Hope it all goes smoothly for you.

-Linda