After searching for many hours, and failing over and over in my attempts to create a simple bootable USB key, I finally found a solution that works.
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Every so often, when you plug in a new device, a little bubble pops up and tells you that errors were encountered during the install. And that's it, game over. If you try to unplug it and plug it back it, the system tray inevitably tells you the same thing. It doesn't even show up in Device Manager.
There is a way to make these devices show in the Device Manager so you can attempt to install the correct driver and make them work.
I've used this little trick on more than one occasion.
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These days, there is significant risk that your operating system might become unusable because of a virus, or performance killers like spyware. In such cases, the best resolution is to format the drive and start from scratch. However, emails, music, pictures, banking info, etc is typically stored on the same drive as the operating system.
A simple solution is to store all of your data on a seperate drive - or, if that's not possible, a seperate partition on the same drive. So, instead of putting everything on the C:\ drive, create a second drive (which I usually call D:\ for 'Documents') and store it there.
There are a few ways to create the second drive. The first, and easiest method is to buy a second hard drive and install it. However, this costs some dough, and if you don't have any, you'll have to try method two: creating a second partition on the same hard drive.
I've decided to start a column-type article which will describe things that I've learned about computers. My intention is to help a range of people - from less computer literate to very computer literate - to improve their skills.
As anybody who knows anything about computers would, I admit that I don't know a great deal about computers. I have a wide and solid knowledge base, but there is so much to know, it's impossible to know even half of what's really out there. I am, however, very proficient when it comes to: daily tasks, calendering, email and communication, applications, setting up computers (hardware and software), networking, graphic design, website design, and troubleshooting common problems.
My knowledge is specific to PCs and Microsoft operating systems. I know enough about macs that I don't want to know more.