read my post?

Either one?

You asked ;.... use drive 1 for work files, use drive 2 for a back up, and back up your work files daily.
burn a CD at least once a week if not more often, every several days.
Store weekly backups in another building or your car.

In my original post at the beginning of the thread, I said

This morning, after my usual early scribbling time I popped the backup disc in for the standard B/U update as the system shut down.

I backup every time I close my WP program, not daily, not weekly, every time, even if I log off for a break or to let my grandchildren use the computer. I spend too much time and work to hard on those 'scripts to lose a single word. Drive C:/ has all my programs on it. E:/ drive has all my data. Backups, long term, are on CD, not CD-RW, I burn a fresh one every time, sounds wasteful, but it has been my experience that CD-RW's can, and will get corrupted. Mid-session backups are on floppy. Soon that will change to a USB thumb drive with an external HDD as secondary. The CD's (I make two) go into a very safe place, one at home, the other is in my carry I take with me everywhere.

You said; Given that 200 mile drive, I assume you already are using a battery backup UPS with a heavy duty surge protector in front of it.

Thanks for the advice, which I did some time ago given the "dirty" incoming power and telephone signals I suffer out heah in de boonies. Which extends to physically unplugging both the power and modem when lightning starts flashing within a few miles.
I maintain and repair my own systems, and prefer to "roll my own" as it were. These days it actually costs more to build a system than buy one. I'll scrape up the extra cash to do it though. I get exactly what I want, and am intimately familiar with the innards. Without the crippled O/S CDROM they give you for "Restore", if you get one at all. And avoiding the long phone calls to India for "Customer (Dis) Service".

Since word is not a common format on the net, I assume you recieved the original worm either in an attachment or by physical disk.

An attachment from one of my kinfolk, I called them last night and found out they had to take their box to the shop, for the same worm/trojan. My AV program didn't catch it, this particular worm as a new (Dec 16) wild variant of the MDS, which is passed through a M$Word doc. I don't have word, but as I said, I recieved a M$Word doc and opened it with WP, whih WP can do from Ver 8 up. The *(&%(&)*& thing still found a hidy hole, even without M$Word. I knew right off something was wrong, but didn't have time to do a thorough check right then.

Why didn't you scan it when it first came in?

I did, always do, like I said below, ain't no n00bie. I updated Tuesday night, the variant hit the web Wend morn, got the .doc Thur.

finally, consider getting a Mac.

Three comments, 1; Macs are overpriced and underserviced (out here)

2: I use M$ucks O/S because it's the most common O/S around, not the best, but the most common. Which means the number of usable aftermarket programs and freeware available for it is staggering.

3: I can't dig around inside a Mac and upgrade it like my current box, which began life with a 600MHZ P III, 128MB ram and a 20Gig HDD. Now it has a 1.1 Gig PIII, 512 Meg RAM (maxed out on those two), a 60Gig HDD and an 80 Gig HDD. And, those upgrades cost me all of about 120 bucks, the memory I got on sale, two 256 sticks for 18 bucks each, the PIII, out of a system going to scrap, cost, zero, the HDD's $79 +5 shipping from newegg for the 80, the 60 came out of another system going to scrap. (It was almost new, replaced less than two weeks before being removed from service.) Not to mention the much broader availability of games ... if you have the desire. (I don't)

I really don't want to get into the neverending debate about Mac's VS PC's.

Any questions?

Get it? Got it? Good!