KIES trouble -- what else?

A

AC Question

Greetings. I want to SCREAM. I first downloaded this software a few months ago. It worked great -- until I had to get a new hard drive. I am still at a loss why it won't connect now to my phone, because all my files, settings etc. were migrated over.

I have windows 7 pro 64 bit. I have a galaxy mini 3 with android 4.2.2. Yes I know that's an older version but this was an unlocked phone, the price was right and so I can't complaint.

Well I think I've tried about everything. I uninstalled and reinstalled the software. I have the correct version, which is kies 2.6 (plus other numbers for the latest). I have the drivers. When I re-installed, I saw windows installing the drivers (plus I have the kies driver i see it in my control panel.
I read a lot of entries here about things to dry. I paused my Kaspersky because that was a problem in a few other things. But that wasn't it.
I tried the debugging /undebugging.
I tried a few other things here with going into the software and setting the sharing files in the network.
Still, nothing works. I really liked the simplicity of this software but despise the lack of support from Samsung. Besides if they can't fix a bug in their own software what good are they no matter how many better-looking phones they come up with (mind you leaving out all the crud they jam in.)
Does anyone have any suggestions? I see that I am not the only one with this issue, sad to say.
thanks,
Gina