my guess and I do mean guess is that it was a conincidence that it failed right after doing the updates, for DA it was not a drive failure but a corrupted/failed Operating system. It could be due to the fact the drive they provided you was not a new drive, but drives that are brand new sometimes fail. There is an old trick for trying to save info from a failed drive you might want to try it, you freeze the drive literally put it in the freezer,wrap it in paper towels put it in a sealed ziplock baggie, let it freeze well(a few hours or over night), stick it in the enclosure, or plug into the pc, and as fast as possible try to access it and grab your info, it will not work for long but many times it will work long enough to get the info off of it. Usually the window is about 15 mins. You can make it last longer if you put a frozen container or those blue ice packs on top of the drive when you take it out and connect it to the pc (protect it from moisture of course). Have a flash drive or some backup drive ready to go to get that info backed up immediately. You can repeat this a few times if you are lucky. Why freezing a hard drive might help on this site scroll way way down below all the blue text to read the info on how to and why freezing might work. does the drive spin at all? can you hear it spin up? is there any clicking or noise, does your pc recognize or see the drive? If it is spinning then freezing it is not the way to go because a spinning drive is not a dead drive. IF you want to try Spin Rite by Steve Gibson here is the site for it. SpinRite also this link talks of options to try including the freezer technique. Here is a link that might be useful: freezer technique and more

First I did a restore to remove two updates the evening of September 7, 8:36/8:38. The restore appeared to be successful, but the problem continues. So I restored back about one week and the restore terminated in "...did not complete successfully... system files and settings not changed" It went on to suggest I "temporarily disable anti-virus software" I couldn't find any way to disable Avira AntiVirus. But, I decided to try to view a picture form the desk-top, it worked this time, so I tried a video clip and it too now works. These were the two problems I noted ... go figure. Given I have removed several Microsoft updates, should I now go back to Microsoft and ask for a "Check of Updates"?

What JEMDANDY suggests concerning the firewalls is a huge problem these days and unless you check for it occasionally, it sneaks up on you. Here's another possibility: I don't know if your particular anti-virus program uses Sun Belt antivirus technology. If you check your task manager and see something similar to SBAMsvc.exe then, you are using it. That particular antivirus is dynamic where it checks all opened files and incoming email for virus. Unfortunately, it is also a resource hog. I'm not saying other programs don't cause the same problems. I am just particularly familiar with this one since they provide programming for a lot of the antivirus packages out there. If another company is used, the below would still help you see if that is your problem. You probably notice the hangups when you have incoming mail with attachments, especially large ones. All the resources are being used to check the mail and even a ctrl-alt-del doesn't have an impact. It actually will but it has to wait in line for it to get it's allocation of resources to launch. Sometimes you'll see your email request time out. Of course, not having an antivirus checker for email is like walking through a mall in your underware. However, the best way to see if this is your problem is to go into your antivirus software settings and turn off email checking. Once the mail has transferred over, turn it back on. This would be AFTER you have done what JEMDANDY has suggested and still have the problem. If indeed this resolves your problem you have 2 choices....do this every time before calling for your mail or, add more memory. It's unfortunate that we have to "retool" our equipment to use a product that is supposed to be helping us protect and utilize what we have. However, with the sophistication of malware and Virus attacks, the products protecting us from them have become more and more resource dependent, to keep up. You also really need to clean out your temporary internet and cache files as well as cookies. This can do the same thing you describe if they get too large.

I was here pk. I guess I should have let you know that the backup was specifically asking for the apple id password. I only brought up email because I found no contacts (but I also pointed out that I hadn't tried to link emails in any way). I also now see that there is an off setting on a 'settings' button for email. I am not sure how she sees her mail. Probably directly via Safari but I do see an email app right on her first page trey below the regular apps. Probably way more info than needed since this was not really an email question. Looking back, I now see that I wasn't clear about what password was wanted; sorry. My general question was about the whole purpose of this kind of backup. It appeared (and still does) that she may not have had anything to backup because she didn't really use itunes for paid music (and yesterday I saw something that implied it didn't do that either, I suppose because apple really only has pointers to the music and always remembers your apple id with those pointers). I was more concerned that perhaps each system update might wipe all apps and perhaps other stuff. As far as I can tell, it certainly didn't wipe all apps out (she still has some), and I see no reason it would clear specific ones. I was waiting for another response and to see if I got a backup. I can't really tell because it doesn't say so. It was not asking to be backed up yesterday (or today) and I can't find where it is indicated. The new update changed stuff on icloud and wanted new legal acceptance (i gave it) but that was after I attempted the backup. BTW I actually read a little of the legal stuff and it included that icloud could wipe your backup if you didn't backup for 120 days!!! Anyway, I still don't really understand the purpose of this backup system. While attempting to follow various directions, I got messages that suggest if there are problems (I don't think there actually were) that I should Reset the ipad. I am suspecting that perhaps that is exactly when the backup would be needed because the Reset Would wipe everything back to a new pad. Not sure of that either.