LinuxQuestions.org - flipping frustrated...

ok, so i am new to Linux. it seemed more attractive then the failure prone windows that i gave up on. i decided to try puppy, as research showed it to be simple and able to boot up just about anything. well, it did boot up a computer that one "expert" (as in the fellas you pay money to to fix something) said the "drive is corrupted or full" whilst another said"the motherboard is shot". Solutions by both were to reinstall windows? when the unit crapped out again, i decided to fix myself. windows tools did nothing. Puppy got me in, i can use the unit (as i am right now) but I cannot save a session, make puppy permanent, or add anything to it. downloads cannot be saved or used in any way. even tried to force an ISO image and still nothing. sure, i am beginning to like the Linux system, but having to boot from a disc every time, resetting configurations in BIOS, and not being able to change or add, or fix/delete old (windows) files on hard drive disc (now 2, one is new, ready to go, and has win 7 only on the damn thing). maybe i do not understand the programming, but it seems like even after using various shell commands and such (which i found on line, thankful for that) puppy is stuck as being a boot, reconfigure BIOS,stuck with it, unchangeable, look-here-are-your-old-files-that-you-cannot-do-anything-with-only-puppy-can-use-the-space-on-the-drives os. i may as well not even have hard drives, apparently not needed. today, i tried to get zorin to install...ha, fat chance. i just want something that works, or some clue to some "magic switch" i missed. i am fearful to shut unit down, since i would not be surprised if she never came on again. sigh... i want to have linux on this machine. even my frustrating experience with the puppy version is better than dealing with things that happen with ms win OS.