Thumbs up: Removing truly invasive, non-native plants (japanse honeysuckle for instance.) Thumbs up: Using plants that (once established) can get by (most years) on whatever rain falls. Thumbs up: Plants that provide food and shelter for birds--and realizing that snakes and hawks gotta eat too. (One of my neighbors asked me if I'd figured out a way to keep the resident hawk from eating the birds who came to my feeders (I've never seen this happen.) Same neighbor was horrified when she learned that Fred the Black Snake had gotten the second round of cardinal nestlings that were in my Rose bush. Nature at it's finest! Thumbs down: Rubber mulch (except in a playground situation)and synthetic pinestraw. Thumbs down: Neighbors who ask me to design THEIR gardens...just becasue mine "looks so good." I could be flattered, but-- 1) I garden by "feel"--my designs are the product of trial, error, plant obsession, plantwalking, and some great guidance from THIS group. 2) I actually TAKE CARE of my garden. Neighbors in question will not. 3) My garden is built around serious hardscape--it provides the structure for what I plunk in place. The yards in question have little-to-no hardscape. melanie

It is truly unfortunate that you had a lightening event. However, this is indeed an educational experience for all users. There is no absolute protection from lightening except total disconnection, and even then there are several reported cases of resulting static electricity doing hardware damage. So with limited options it is our duty to do everything we can, and keep our fingers crossed. Plus, we as users must develop good backup disciplines. DA

On many/most/all thumb drives there is a tiny LED light, do you see it with yours? Right click Start click Open Windows Explorer In the new window look down the left side for your thumb drive, possibly showing as the F drive. When you insert the thumb drive is there an audible signal? When you remove it is there an audible signal? What happened when you visited the link Zep provided? Simply saying you tried everything is not helpful, a more detailed reply could help considerably. Chuggerguy asked if you daughter had a Mac or Linux program. Does she? Did she format the thumb drive? These are normally formatted in FAT format.

Are you clicking on the "safe to remove hardware" icon down in system tray (beside clock) if not, you could be harming your USB ports and thumbdrive. I assume this thumbdrive has worked before on the Vista computer