Congratulations! You're getting the hang of it.
Computers are tools, and like any tool, they're force multipliers. Just as a hammer multiplies the power of your hand (imagine trying to push nails into wood!), a computer multiplies the power of your mind. The more you find out, the more you can do, and the more interesting it gets.
It sounds like your problem was what we call "Windows rot" -- a slow degradation that takes place over time, usually as the result of incompatible software patches, adding and removing programs, and general-purpose crud build-up. I'm fairly sure the phase of the moon and the price of tea in China are part of it, too, because they seem to be the only things that correlate with some of the weird problems I've had over the years.
You mentioned in one of your earlier posts that you'd never heard of calibre. It's a free, open-source ebook library management program. It makes organizing your ebooks much more convenient (and, unlike Sony's software, doesn't crash at inopportune moments). I'm not sure what I'd do without it (aside from swear a lot). You can find out more about it on the
calibre website, and its support forum is right down the list a ways here on MobileRead.
Um, what if I'm not Canadian? Shouldn't you be apologizing to me for offering an apology in case I was Canadian, eh?