So I'm having some computer issues right now, and frankly I don't know a damn thing about computers... So here's a description of the problem, what I've done since then, and questions about what to do now...

So I have this Dell laptop that I've been using for a couple years now. It's worked well for everything thus far, but the other day I was in the middle of editing a video in Adobe Premiere when I had to save it, shut the computer, and go to work. When I got back from work the screen was all black with some white writing that said at the bottom "Cannot Locate Operating System." Now, I don't know much about computers, but I assumed that to be a bad thing. So I tried ctrl+alt+delete, just to kinda see what would happen, and it went to the boot up screen, then back to the black error screen. So I did ctrl+alt+delete again, then hit F12 and ran some sort of blue screen diagnostic test program thingy that took like an hour, then turned up no errors and I just kinda said "fuck it," shut the computer off, and went to bed.

The next morning I started it up, and it gave me the old "Windows didn't shut down properly you idiot" message, so I ran Safe Mode to see if I could somehow pinpoint the initial problem. I didn't really find anything abnormal, so I restarted the computer and ran Windows normally, which seemed to work just fine. After letting it load up for a minute, I tried opening my Premiere project, which froze up and said it wasn't responding, and then made the entire computer run slowly. Like, REALLY slow. So I restarted the computer again and all of the other programs seem to be working just fine, and I can even open other projects in Premiere with no problems.

So I ran my anti-virus, registry cleaner, and defragger.... Just ya know... cause. Seemed appropriate. No errors or threats or anything, but ya know. Whatever. Then I let in on trying to back everything up really quick to my external hard drive. I ran the backup program built in to Windows 7, which I think worked alright, and I also made a system image.... well... I tried to make a system image, but it always comes up with an error saying it couldn't be completed. So I cleared off the external to make some room, ran both again, and went to bed. I woke up and the computer had restarted and was at the log in screen, so I assumed it had finished just fine. I couldn't find the files on the external, though.... So I ran it again, and got an error.

So I kinda said "fuck it" again, and tried running some programs and stuff again to see how that was doing. Again though, Premiere doesn't work with that one project, and everything else seems to be working. So now I'm just kinda crossing my fingers and praying to the computer gods.

So that's where I'm at. Does anyone know or have any idea what might have happened? What should I do now? If I were to successfully create a backup of my files, and a system image on my external, then convert the computer back to the factory settings and restore everything off of the external, would that work out just fine, or would I need a bunch of new keygens and shit?

Any help/advice would be SUPER appreciated.

Also "Dell Help Center," whatever that is, keeps popping up with this error saying it's not responding, but only for a second, then it disappears... But it does that like, every ten or fifteen minutes... I dunno if that's important or not, but felt like it was worth mentioning.

System restore.

Stop downloading porn

grab your shotgun and shoot it.