So, couldn't get the PC to work properly so I reinstalled Windows 7 from the disc. That went well, but I whiffed by the step where it mentioned partitioned drives. So not it appears the PC has a drive C: with 280 free GBs and a Recovery Drive E: with about 350MB and only 55 MB free. And it appears when I add files and installed programs to the PC, it adds them to the E:drive, which is rapidly running out of space.

So now I am looking for a way to change the size of the partitions. But hey, it runs fast like it used to :)

Is the Windows directory and Program Files - Program Files (x86) on Drive C: ?

It should be booting to Drive C: and Programs should be installing to Drive C:

That is the objective. If Windows etc installed to drive C: it should be relatively easy to get it to boot to drive C:

It shouldn't be booting to drive E: and Programs should not be installing to drive E: either. Drive E: or drive D: is the recovery drive.

It's hard for me to give advice over the internet. Hopefully the Guru's will chime in.

Oh, were spot on, the first time I reinstalled Win7 yesterday, I breezed through the screen about where to install Windows.

I reinstalled again, this time I selected C: and all is good. PC is fast and nice again.

Great news!

Was it possible to boot to a Safe mode?

Neal, I just went thru that a couple of weeks ago. 2nd time this year. It was probably Ransomeware that hit you. It's nasty and you can't do a thing but reinstall the OS. Or if you're near one, go to a Microsoft Store and let them do it. They can save everything you have after they get rid of the virus. It will cost you 49.99 but it's well worth it.

I go it from downloading a piece of software from a website I thought was safe.... and it usually is. When I did the install it took over and I was scrod. These AHs are hacking good sites and putting their crap in software files we download and think are safe.

And that's yet another reason to run Linux. No ransomware!

On my own system I did an install of the OS (I'm using 8.1)
Then I did an "image" out of it which goes into a USB key (I got a 128 Gb but the backup uses FAR LESS than this)

Every year I reinstall my system from the image.
All data/programs are stored in separate disks and the only needed thing is to update the drivers for the graphic card.

Re-imaging the disk from the USB is 5 minutes.
So all the install/configuration part is only done once.