E.T.'s L.J. U.R.L.

My mom's computer has been infected by "malware alarm 2.1". She has Windows 2000 Pro. Any recommendations for the best way to get rid of it? Free would be nice but simple is most important. Thank you, O Smart People!

sdavido has been having some computer trouble, and we're looking for advice. His computer (Apple titanium G3 Powerbook, with Tiger 10.4) isn't "seeing" his external hard drive (LaCie 117 gig firewire). He's tried DriveGenius and DataRescue2 (demo versions), as well as the normal Mac disk utilities, but nothing has worked. The computer refuses to admit that the drive exists. (He says, "it isn't making clunkity noises, either.") He has a bunch of files on there that he really needs for a project he's working on, so any help and/or insights you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

There's a show on the Discovery Channel* tomorrow night that sdavido would really like to see. Would someone possibly be able to record** it for us?

* I don't know whether we get the Discovery Channel, I never turn on the TV (aside from watching DVDs). We only have cable because it comes with the Broadband.

** We might be able to record it if we get the channel, but we might not have a blank tape/DVD, and might discover at the last second that the VCR/recorder had the hiccups... and since I work 'til 8 tomorrow night, and Solomon works 'til 9:30, we might not find out it wasn't working until it was too late. If possible I'd much rather have someone record it as back-up, just in case.

We haven't been able to connect in a couple days because our Broadband has been down. Last night sdavido called up Comcast in an effort to get it fixed, and after going in circles for 45 minutes was told there's an outage in our area. Lovely. I called up tonight to see when it might be fixed, and got a recording claiming we have a service appointment - which we did not schedule - on a day when we'll be out of town. So I passed the phone back to sdavido, and after an hour of aggravation with several different Comcast workers giving conflicting information, they finally confirmed that there is still an outage. But they're going to send over a service guy in a couple days anyway in case our modem is the problem. (Believe me, the long version is much more confusing...)

In the meantime, frustrated at being unable to connect, I announced to sdavido that I was going to regress and pulled my 100-foot phone cord out of the closet. (Always have one in case of emergencies!) He had to help me find the right port on the new computer, but it seems to be working quite happily. I don't know whether I'll have the time to catch up on everything b/c I'm hooked up through the phone line instead of our usual Broadband, but the sad thing is this is the fastest connection I've had in days...

This may be a long shot, but, does anyone out there know anything about Mozilla? A friend/fellow merchant just accidentally deleted an address book/mailer while trying to copy addresses from one to the other, and is now beside herself because she doesn't know how to retrieve it (or whether this is even possible). If you do know how to do that, and would be willing to talk with a very nice but somewhat panicked stranger, please give me a call at the store (617) 734-3114 (I'm here 'til 8) and I'll connect you. If this isn't your department, sorry to bother you. :-) Thanks very much!