Thanks for your encouragement novocaine, I really DO appreciate it, honest.
BUT (there's always one isn't there)?
Just take for example line 3 off your post above, QUOTE: .... just transferred to an SSD and Linux mint .... UNQUOTE: Sorry, I really am sorry, but I'm also a klutz and don't understand that part of the sentence - what's an SSD, and what's Linux mint?
And again, line 7. QUOTE: ......... boot the computer from the memory stick (you'll have to change the boot sequence but that's only a matter of hitting f11 or del at start up and selecting the boot order from a list). UNQUOTE. Again sorry, I'm NOT in any way having a go at you, but can only respond to that sentence with "Pardon?"
Yup, going to the guru down town and paying for a course will cost me money, BUT, just like paying for any other transaction for goods and/or services, if it doesn't work properly, or if I haven't understood something properly, we'll (the guru actually) will keep on with it until it does work/I do understand - otherwise he won't get paid!
I have tried all this "just download this or that off the internet and install it ..." before, and in my admittedly small experience it NEVER goes just like the on-line Help says it does, and/or my screen NEVER looks exactly like the on-screen shots provided. Sorry, and I KNOW I'm a "mouse not a man" when it comes to all this stuff, but I am definitely NOT - that's NOT EVER - going down that road again!
If I pay for something from an established local business then I will get all the standard consumer protections. On-line? There's a big chance of nothing at all. Come on, how many times have you called or E-mailed a software vendors so-called helpline with absolutely no helpful end result at all. Often, you're lucky to even get an (auto) acknowledgement, let alone an answer!
My mother tongue is English, and I'm quite "fluid" with it
- both spoken and written, but these people (even the English-speaking ones) just don't speak the same language that I do!
Rant over, and nothing personal mate, really. But unless you want to come over here and do it all for me (you can have a bed for the night, and Sleazy Jet flies to Basel, 25 mins down the road!), it's definitely going to be the local business route this time.