I should tell you all something before I make myself look any stupider.

This forum is all the documentation I have.
No books. No manuals. No instructions. Not even OS/2 for Dummies. (But I think that will be my next eBay purchase.)
Basically what I'm doing is every time I install, it's like running though a large warehouse with no lights. Each time I know where what I ran into last time was, get past it, and crash into something else.
Now, I'm going to erase all partitions, reinstall one careful step at a time, and if I don't find any books on eBay or online, I'll come crying to you *again*.
Thank you for all the help so far, and again, sorry for being such a #%$& grouch.