Can anyone help me? My computer is basically nonfunctional

Okay, so sorry, im a total newb at this.

I seem to be bad luck for any computer I touch. I just got a new laptop at the end of last summer, and since then I have been having a bunch of problems. I have been able to solve them all up until now. I have no clue what's wrong, and stupid me, I never backed it up so anyway, currently my computer won't go on the internet (doesn't think it has a wifi card installed) won't play audio (doesn't think it has speakers--haunt tried plugging in external ones, but my guess is it would work fine) won't open any Microsoft office programs or files (no clue why) won't recognize my external hard drive, or flash drive, or any USB device. And the list goes on. Basically, I'm giving up and wanna just wipe the whole thing, restore it to factory state, and start over. Oh yea, and did I mention that it been partitioned like 7 times because I gave it to my friend to install linux, and when it wasn't working, he just kept trying and ended up installing ubuntu over and over again in a new partition. Yea.

So anyway I really wanna back up all my stuff, but how can I do that 1: in a way that won't transfer the problem whatever it is, and 2:that I can do with only CDs. I'm running windows seven home premium 64bit

Any help on the backup, and any tips in general would be really appreciated. I am at the end of my role here and about to go crazy.

Sorry for the weird long crazy post. I'm just like about to lose it

*EDIT:Now I'm trying to back up my whole system using windows backup or whatever it is onto a disk, but it's been stuck on 25% backed up for 45 mins

OldMX said:

I suggest having a live distro like ubuntu to backup all your stuff first, once everything is backed up, perform the Clean Install Windows 7 tutorial

Sorry, I'm kinda stupid these days. What do you mean live distro? And how do i get it? And my ubuntu isn't working. I was never able to get it to work. Sorry if I sound super super stupid. My brains kinda mush at this point

Oohh, thanks. Wow I feel stupid. Now for another stupid question. How do I back up everything saved on the windows partition of my hard drive through ubuntu?

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! And now...one more question, sorry. Well a couple really. Is there away to get rid of (and preferably reinstall) windows seven without wiping my hard drive. Because everything's working fine in ubuntu, I think seven just got corrupted or something if thats possible.

You can find a Win7 Installer to clean reinstall with the Product key on COA sticker, following these steps: Reinstalling Windows 7

Or if it isn't corrupted you can run full Factory Recovery from Win7 or by tapping the key given on the first screen. If you tell us the make of Computer we can tell you exactly how this is done. It will wipe out all of your data so you need to have it backed up externally.

Thanks :) It's a Dell inspiron n4010

Dell Restoring Your Computer´s Software to the Factory Settings