1775 wrote:
Whenever someone tells me that they are having a problem with a computer, it is almost always a Dell. If you got to a clean Win 8.0 install, then upgrade again to Win 8.1 and install all of your software. Once you get this working again, get yourself a portable USB hard drive and good backup software like Acronis True Image. Make regular full or incremental backups of all of your hard drives (if you have more than one) and then you will never have this problem again. You just boot to the restore DVD that you create - no need for Windows - with the USB drive connected and restore your hard drive to the most recent backup.
Thank you so muc, 1775. This is the META knowledge I asked for...I needed to know it wasn't all my inexperience. I needed confirmation that the Dell-Windows8 product was flawed, and that I had not missed a major point.
Our data needs are quite small, and a simple couple of duplicate USB sticks can suffice...
I would rather crush the malfunctioning computer than insure it. I think this is what Chromebooks are all about. If only they could develop their low vision accessibility to the level that the government required of Microsoft and Apple back in the day...
Thanks for your insight, it IS appreciated.
