[Sussex] Elderly Aunts with computer problems (windows ones :-( )

[John D.]

My Aunt has an aging computer (from Evesham). She decided that she
wanted a DVDRW fitted - this was done by her local shop.

Somewhere along the line, shes lost some .dll files and has been
recommended to re-install (W98SE). The missing file (the main one
apparently) is the mscoree.dll, which, as far as I can tell is something
to do with the .Net framework I haven't managed to work out why that
might cause dvd burning problems (she didn't say what the other missing
files were, as she thinks she knows what they are). Shes not confident
to do a re-install herself, and lucky me, has been enlisted to assist.

Shes not really worried about any of the files etc that shes produced,
and seems to have a couple of cruzer sandisk 128 meg key drives to put
her most precious photos (she likes digital photography/image editing)
on.

My real question, is that if I do the re-install, but prior to that, I
shrink the file system with partition magic and then make a seperate
partition for her data "a la linux" like a seperate /home, does that
logic still hold for windows systems, if she were to have any other
problems like this? (perhaps I should have just said "is there any point
in having a seperate data partition).

Oh and for info, her local computer shop seem to think that the a
re-install should cure the problem(s), though I suspect that there could
be an issue about any missing patches etc that where produced by MS over
the years before they stopped supporting W98 - I suppose that they might
have them in their archives.

Also, as this main missing .dll is .Net framework related, would it
perhaps be better to just try and download and install the .Net stuff?
She uses dialup, I'm thinking that it might be less hassle to try that
as even though it's 20 + megs and would take a while, it'd be safer to
try that ??

Could anyone advise me on this ??

regards

John D.

p.s. Oh and apologies for soiling the mailing list with a windies ???
but I couldn't think who else to ask!