zep, you got off free and clear, not I, not the first time probably won't be the last. Oh well can't please them all. LOL and yes I do have resources to back it up. Help! My computer is slow! a highly regarded MVP posts about registry cleaner use. Mark Russinovich (Author of the "Bible", Windows Internals, co-founder of Winternals and Sysinternals, and since both companies were bought by Microsoft, now a senior Microsoft employee) "I haven't and never will implement a Registry cleaner since it's of little practical use on anything other than Win2K terminal servers and developing one that's both safe and effective requires a huge amount of application-specific knowledge. Will using Registry Cleaners speed-up my system and make it more reliable? It will have no effect on system speed. There is an excellent chance it will make your system less reliable." And the extremely well know Fred Langa Are software registry cleaners of any use? Fred Langa started with a standard PC, imaged it, and ran 10 registry cleaners. He ran each three times on an image: Highest number of items that needed to be "fixed": 800 Lowest number of items found to be "fixed": 59 "Does not this suggest that what needs to be fixed is not at all certain? The other question it invites is it not possible that those generating a large number of entries are trying to sell snake oil? " And from Bill Castner MS MVP who works on many of the support forums. "Summary of Registry Cleaner Software: Do not bother with this. It it unlikely to help, it can cause harm. There are no end-user benefits from running registry cleaners. Unnecessary entries in the registry do no harm. This should not be a regular maintenance chore. It most certainly if done should not be automated. I hold to the singular distinction I made in the beginning: there are times that a fast registry editor with search is needed to fix a single issue under Expert hands. There is no justification for the regular use of automated registry cleaning tools; and as the results above show, they are of dubious merit as the "fix" for even one-off problems that need solving." Bill Castner MS-MVP, Aumha VSOP & Moderator I could certainly go on for quite some time quoting from each of the support forums, but I won't bother. As DA so wisely stated "The problem is here at the forum we have members of various levels of inexperience who at times overly rely on a member's suggestion or from readings elsewhere." That is precisely why at help forums you MUST be extremely cautious what is suggested, and every support forum I work on goes by the statement that Bill Castner made above. If someone knowingly choses to use such a program they take that risk upon them selves which is fine if they are knowingly entering into it and know the risks involved.

I am wondering if this could be a run away log file. when you have a problem with hard drive space disappearing, look for a gigantic file. In Windows XP, open Windows Explorer (click Start, All Programs, Accessories, Windows Explorer). Click Search and All Files and Folders. Enter *.* in the file name. Tell it to search My Computer. Select Specify Size and pick At Least in the first box. Enter 1000000 in the second box. Click Search. We are looking for any really large files if you find something get the info on where it is and what it is. Also do this, click start, control panel, administrative tools, event viewer, there you will see 3 options double click on them one at a time and see if you have any warnings if you see anything unusual just double click on that entry and it will open a box with info and what the code is. In the security especially look closely for signs of any one other than you logging into your system. While in control panel open user accounts and look to see if you see any new or additional user accounts listed in there. do you have a firewall on your pc? if not at the very least get the windows one turned on but I would advise going and getting one of the free ones, and setting it up, just in case someone has gained access to your system. work with that program xinorbis it will tell you exactly where the big files are that is what it is for so you can see exactly what is taking up that space. It will make pie charts and lists and tell you a lot of info. Another thing to check is how much space are you allowing system restore to use? you can adjust the amount you let it have. Start, control panel, double click system click the system restore tab then settings if the slider is all the way on max move it down a bit hit apply ok, that might show you have some space back check and see. And just in case you have not done this already on your browsers clear all the cache, temp internet files, cookies, history, offline content, every thing. If you need directions just tell us. Go to your trash bin and make sure it is completely empty. do you have any type of peer to peer sharing programs on your pc? like sharing music of videos? If so lock them down and/ or get rid of them. Have you installed itunes by any chance and loaded music? sometimes it can duplicate files. you can download a free program called belarc advisor which will scan your pc and give you a list of everything that is on your pc, but it also has a function that will tell you if your hard drive is healthy or if may be failing, that would be something worth checking. I am just wracking my brain for things that could be causing this. But I tell ya I would be thinking of trying a system restore point prior to that date that you said it pointed to and see what happens before you no longer have the option to go back there. As I said if it does not help you can just turn right back around and tell it to undo it. To be doubly sure have it create a restore point right before you do the go back. Do that before you make any changes to your system restore like moving the slider to use less space, would not want to lose the restore point you needed. I will keep thinking on it as I am sure others are too.

Colin - your explanations of restore, system restore, back up, etc were very helpful. They were a very useful edition to what Ravencajun wrote - it didn't seem repetitive to me. I think I can really use any reiteration at this point. Now I actually understand that the system can be backed up to a hidden spot on the hard drive as well as my backing it up on dvd - to be used in the event that the hard drive back up doesn't work. By George, I think I've got it...........Well - at least that part. I'm not sure that I saw any option to create a back up start-up disk. Was that automatically included when I backed up the entire hard drive - or is there a separate step I should take? I also realize that I hadn't understood what you meant by blue button. I was looking at an actual blue button the thinkpad keyboard. Will that button do - or should I be looking for something else. I didn't not notice any blue buttons on the screen (except the Avast buttons in the task bar). Raven - I have a question about revo uninstaller. What would it uninstall? I noticed that I have Office on my computer but I don't know if it came with Office - or if this is a trial program. Is there a way I can figure that out? If it's a trial, I'd like to remove it. If it's permanent, I'll keep it. I know I did not get Microsoft Word with this and thought I had chosen no office software. I was planning on getting open office for the few times I might need to work on a word document (working on a document that is in Word on my desktop). Zep - good point about the printer software. I know when I chose the Canon mx850 and was researching printers, these were considered much better in terms of minimal bloatware (than say the HP's). I know when I installed the software on my desktop (and my daughter's) that several files were installed, but I think I want them all. The computer is networked so I can scan documents to any of our computers - print from any computer, fax from any computer, etc. I'm not sure how I would determine if any of those canon files are bloatware. More on my progress: -I did do all the lenovo updates. -ran javara and updated java and removed old programs. -installed and ran malwarebytes, spywareblaster. Any particular settings I should choose for spywareblaster,malwarebytes or Avast? I have so far just chosen the defaults - but don't know if I should "protect?" cookies - or anything else. And I just realized that I forgot to install superantispyware. For Avast, I did not set up scans on the screensaver - because at this point I will be turning the computer off if it is not being used for a while. If I just happen to walk away for 20 minutes or so, I don't want a scan automatically running that I have to wait to finish - or interrupt and cancel it - and run it manually later. Does it seem okay to just run it manually? If so, how often? Maybe I should use the screensaver option? I think "protecting (I know that's the wrong word - unselecting ?) cookies was for ccleaner - not anti-spyware programs. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong. So now I'm off to get superantispyware - run secunia and get any necessary updates - and set up the printer software. This is extremely gratifying to be able to do this (with everyone's help). It really helps me to understand what's going on with my computer. Thanks. Lynn. PS - if I get open office, is there anyplace in particular I should download it from? Are there parts to download and parts to avoid - or do I just download the whole program?

No problem and I appreciate you being ok with me bumping into your exchange here- I am following this with alot of interest. Just quickly, on my issue, the installer came back out. At first he said this was normal as shared earlier and had to be told (from a non-expert) that this was not normal at all. It seems that he made some type of wiring adjustments (unknown since my wife cant follow any of this when she was watching and asking) and then adjusted settings within the setup of the Edge Thermidisstat. We are currently running oil heated-water baseboard as the backup and then the Performance series HP system (EER 12.5, SEER 15.5 and HSPF 9) cant find the AHRI# handy. Temps have been consistently at between 28 and 34 degrees here in Viginia for the last 5-7 days. We are having to manually switch from HP to the oil heat system for right now since I dont want this installer messing with anyting else to connect a relay that allows both to be working from the one thermostat. I will do that later (hence reason for following this discussion closely) I am tracking kW useage off the meter. Here's what I am seeing: Set the HP Edge at 68 degrees and it holds house temp steady wihtout having to use AUX at all. Set the oil heat-boiler at 66 setpoint(manual) It seems that only infrequently will the boiler kick on to augment the HP (running simul right now) Energy useage has been between 3.12 and 3.77 kW per hour across last 5 days (taken in 24 hr periods). VaPOwer is at about .06 cents per kW right now I think, so I'm looking at what 744 hours per month at avg 3.44 kW (.20 cents) per hour= $153.00/month. This is for a brick ranch, 1820 sq ft house