Thank you guys soooooo much for helping, it turns out i'm a complete idiot and somehow ended up with 3 different oblivion folders on my computer. I found the right one, got the mod installed and everything seems to be working fine now.
Before we move on i would like to thank you sooooo much for helping me with this!!! you are great!! unfortunately, when i go to my Oblivion folder there is no Data folder within, no hidden items and creating a Data folder didn't help.
sorry about my absence, i didn't realize when i posted the topic that i had to leave for class shortly after. the mod I wish to download is called "more arrows recovered" at http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/2169/?tab=2&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Foblivion%2Fajax%2Fmodfiles%2F%3Fid%3D2169&pUp=1 When i download it only a single file shows up in my downloads folder.
When i click to download a mod in mod manager, it attempts to download for all of 3 seconds before stopping itself and listing the download as incomplete. I don't know a whole lot about how to fix these things and running it as an administrator does not fix the issue.