Gunnar ... I have tried some of those remedies to no avail ... actually, plan B is in effect ... I took the tower to a pc repair shop and talked to one of the techs ... it was going to be $80 to save everything - and they would not save my e-mail folder, and $80 to reinstall ... he suggested that I try to save everything .. so as I was coming home I figured I would stop at Best Buy ... I bought a 250GB "My Passport" external for $80 ... I will try to do all my own saves, and will have an external to use as a back up drive ...
I may try the reinstall myself also - I like to learn from these things - but I may need a 'tutorial' along the way ...
t.