Laptop Death and the Drivers for Resurrection

After various viral attacks, my laptop died on Thursday. Al helped me by reinstalling windows and, as the disk was partitioned I didn't lose any data, just programs. Today I had to reinstall drivers to get sound (most important!) and internet connectivity. Somehow I stumbled through and all appears to be working as good as new. A headache nearly over. A day almost wasted, though I did manage to finish a book by Octavia Butler and more on that later.