Her hd shows it's full even though there is hardly anything on it

Hi Cheryl and welcome to DaniWeb!

I haven't heard of any pests that make the computer show the hard drive as being full when it isn't -- but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If anyone here knows of any, let us know! What size is the drive and what are some of the programs she has on it? (To help determine if it really is full or not)

It seems odd that you both are showing the 5-1/4 drive, perhaps there is some pest causing this. Try the suggestions in your other post (http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread11018.html) from bentkey for this as well as the CD-ROM.

Make sure your mouse is connected firmly and/or try another mouse to see if that helps.

Most of the other problems you listed could be caused by insufficient hard drive space so that problem needs to be resolved first.

First of all I'm curious, where did you find a new computer with Windows 98?

Before you fdisk and format, make sure you back up any data on there that she want to keep. If it's new, there probably isn't much.

You will want to set your hard drives to Auto Detect as well, not just the CD.

Since she's using DSL, I would recommend getting a hardware firewall before going online to update Windows (which should be your first step after all the drivers are installed). Otherwise she most likely will be reinfested before she can get updated. I've been through that with a Window 2000 install and it's pretty frustrating.

Hope this helps some.

Oh, and I doubt very much if the hard drive is full, there must be some pest causing that message to come up.

I'm attaching a document here -- it is for dual booting, but you only need to follow the first part in order to install Win98 (you should go ahead and follow the instructions to make 2 partitions though).

After you get Windows and your antivirus all set up, check out this thread and look for SpywareBlaster and install it, this will help prevent reinfection (help prevent, not stop!):
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread5690.html

I like Window98 too; the only thing I don't like about XP is it's price and the fact that you can only put it on one computer. Windows 2000 is a good compromise, more stable then 98, less expensive then XP and can be put on more then one computer.

Okay, well it won't let me attach it because I've already attached it in another thread. Look for the attachment in the 3rd post to this thread:
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread10966.html

Thks again DLH, printing out the instructions from your attachment and will follow them. will also dl spyblaster, adware se, spybot...what are the advantages to win 2000 over win 98 se? Is it worth the upgrade you think?

Yeah, I couldn't afford the upgrade to xp on both computers...i hear most software companies are doing this now too...like if you purchase and dl a program, you can only use the key on that one computer. i wonder if trojanhunter is like this too. thks again cheryl

Ummm, it's actually SpywareBlaster, not spyblaster -- that was probably just a typo, but just to make sure...

Basically, Windows 2000 is more reliable and stable then Windows9x. It also has many features that the 9x series does not. Here are a couple of links you can check out:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/p...aturecomp.mspx
http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~erick/nexus/why.htm
You can find the system requirements for Win2K here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000...ng/default.asp

In addition, Microsoft is planning to end support for Windows 98, which means no more updates.

One bad thing is Windows 2000 isn't as good for a lot of games that work with Win9x, but I doubt this is an issue for you.

Is it worth the upgrade? That'll have to be your decision .