Last week, the starter on my old car's 455 V-8 broke down. As I couldn't get
a new starter, I'm having the entire engine extracted and junked so as to put
in a rebuilt one that includes a starter. If you see what I mean?

After three days of trying to fix one problem in XP, including going to Last
Good, restoration of back-up (System State only on first try and then that
plus all of boot drive on second try), installation of Recovery Console so as
to "expand" from XP disk to replace files listed in a variety of error
messages--depending on how I approach Restore Point feature (from My
Computer-Properties to System in Control Panel to Accessories-System in
Programs off Start), as well as finally giving in and installing SP2 (which
took two hours), not to mention hours expended researching so-called
"knowlege base," nothin' worked. I did locate an article on the problem, but
alas, it applied only to Windows ME.

My engine will be installed in my old car in less time.

By now, beyond Restore Point feature inaccessibility, Back-up utility won't
even load, and when it last did, all it did was search for Storage Devices,
finally stalling out for failing to find my second hard drive on which I used
to store back-ups. Is it looking for my digital camera or another planet?

Why must everyone have to do clean installs to solve the slightest problems,
while MS sends up boxes asking if one wants to send a report or not? For all
the good that does.

I'm kidding about my car engine. Course I got a rebuilt starter. Imagine
having to reinstall your engine everytime the red light in your dash lit up
indicating a problem.

Windows platforms seem to rigidly adhere to the Second Law of
Thermodynamics--except more rapidly, so fast do they seem to deteriorate--for
no apparent reason. They start out unstable and grow ever more unstable.

In about eight times posting here, I've gotten answers maybe twice.

I've gotta get a Mac. Luck to all here. As can be seen from number of
postings, Windows ain't workin'.