[Biggie Cox]

This is my first post, so I guess it should be known that my Cicero that runs version 2 of the '02 XP has treated me well over the years. In 05 I downloaded a virus or something after receiving a corrupt mp3. It wracked my comp but I got my mother to bring it in and no problems since (until now). I want to make it clear I know very little of computers and the physical dynamics of how they work. I hardly understand script and have a hard time grasping the concept how they process information. Obviously I use it only for domestic purposes; downloading music, playing games (mmog's and roms), research for school and for personal reasons, homework and so on. My mother who knows even much less than me (sigh) uses it for work. She mainly sends emails (which she just recently learned how to do) and mainly receives large text documents mainly word and PDF files.

Well with ROM's, files of downloaded mp3's and dozens of text document icons and files littering across 4/5 of my desktop, I decided that it was time for a cleanup. I deleted all of the garbage that was useless or not needed, sorted through the text documents etc. After that, which I don't see how it couldn't have went well, I figured it was time to work from the source and clean up my C drive. I had a bad feeling about it but i defied common sense and went ahead. I deleted piles of old documents and cleared files resting in the downloads file. I cleared my cookies which had been resting since I started using Firefox last year, did lots of stuff.

Now here's where I went wrong. After I defragmented my C drive I went into program files and started clicking things which I had deleted from my desktop and started clearing what was left of it. I'm not sure if I screwed anything up there. For example, if I went into file 'Continuum'-a game, and deleted 'menu040.dll', could I screw anything up other than the game itself? After I was done I got slightly confused and started deleting things which looked useless... Big mistake. Before I realized what exactly I was doing I must have went through 3 or 4 files and cleared out everything which was empty and icons which looked useless. Most of my program files are empty anyhow... Now anyways and I hope it's not just things which I screwed over.

Afterwords, I don't think even I'd be dumb enough to do this, but I'm afraid I might have went into the Windows file on C and might have deleted a few things oblivious to the fact that it wasn't docs or empty files or something. Like I said, I'm pretty sure I never, but I know I at least deleted a few DAT files and the ones with the green and yellow clockwork on them. That's physically what I did more or less. Before I scan my C drive again to make sure I didn't leave anything out I'll describe my problems.

The game I play, continuum recently released verion .40, so I deleted the older file with the exact same icon thinking it would just get rid of the old one, but it deleted both of them. No big deal, I'd just DL it again. After I did, the download was no problem. The set up, that was where it went wrong. While it was loading the blue meter measuring how much progress it's made, stopped around a third of the way through and a message appeared saying 'error 5' came up and gave me the options to cancel, ignore or just continue. I clicked continue. The meter kept filling and it happened several more times with the exact same results. After a few times I just clicked cancel. Now what was real weird was the next day I clicked it again and there was no problems installing it. Except when the familliar continuum icon was on my screen I clicked it and it started loaded except it didn't appear. Just the cursor arrow with the hourglass appeared and stayed there. When I pressed ctrl-alt-del and went to processes, they were all there, measured in kilobytes and were constantly moving around, automatically sorting to mem usage. Now my girlfriend who knows much more about comps than I do said that was normal on hers. It wasn't on mine. I remember maybe even earlier that day I couldn't open Firefox so I just went to the process screen in task manager, ended the Firefox process and it worked instantly as I clicked the Firefox icon.

Besides that, I can notice a turn for the worst in my computers performance. It's a lot slower loading and processing tasks like manually changing songs in a playlist and so on. The process screen in task manager constantly changing like I said is new. Continuum just appears to load and dosen't appear. It's strange, for now continuum is the only file I'm having that blatant problem with. I tried clicking 'Sim City 4', another game, and it worked fine. When l was listening to music, I clicked another file (I give each different cd it's own file) and the computer crashed. I had to turn it back on. Somehow I ended up deleting all of Microsoft office although I don't think I was screwing with it's program file and made sure I didn't delete any Microsoft files in add or remove or anything. I just found 'Works Suite 2003' so that problem's solved. It sucks...

If anyone can help me at all with any advice it would be greatly appreciated. Keep in mind I know very little of computers, that's why I explained my problems so inefficiently. I hope to learn a lot about computer dynamics and scripting so please bare with me until then.

Over the years after moving a few times since I've got this comp, I've lost the disks for Sim City. If I format my comp (which I may need help with, -LATER-) is there anyway I could burn Sim City, my mom's documents and music and stuff off or send it to email or something so I could keep it??

Also if I install windows 98 will that work? Seeing as though I have a Pentium 4 will mp3's download as fast or almost as fast as they do now and I know, it's a dumb question, but will I still have the same RAM? Is there anyway that once I install 98 I could get into the XP files and move them all to the 98 platform then delete XP? I wouldn't mind having 98 anyhow. Like I said I want to learn and where better to start than the more basic of the two?? Plus I could learn a bit of DOS and stuff. Thanks a lot. Please do whatever you can to help me. It would be greatly appreciated.