Thanks all.

yes I could run online scans. I have now been virus free for about 2 days. I dumped almost all my backup files on my external except for a few that I cannot easily replace since they were not stored anywhere but my H drive, and ran independent scans on each of those areas. Evidently something was hiding in my H drive, re"infecting" my Gateway.

All of the scans (when H drive was disconnected) came up clean, as in all zeros...BUT when I hooked back up my H drive, the windowsclick came back even thought the C drive came up clean. The H drive would fireup even when not engaged (the light would brighten and I could hear it "thinking").

Thanks again!!!!