I finally got the windows update to run and after updating internet explorer and then restarting it gives me an error message saying that explorer.exe has generated errors and will be clsoe by windows so after logging in al I get is my nice wallpaper and thats it would it be possible to get another hard drive as the primary and pull the files i want off of my current hard drive so i can format and then reinstall windows

Yah you could do that but you might copy the error onto the new drive. It sounds like something got hammered in transit. I also think its windows explorer(explorer.exe) not the internet explorer (Iexplorer.exe) that is generating the error. What all got updated? you may be able to look in the event log or maybe add/remove programs to find out. what about choosing the repair option and possible going back to a registry version just before the update?

all i need to copy is some mp3's and some video clips all have been scanned and are virus free but equal about 5 or 6 GB so i dont wanna waste cd's if i could copy them to another hardrive and once my current one is redone and ready to go just copy them back the error must have soemthing to do though with the critical updates and services packs cause thats all i donwloaded but i cant get to add/remove programs i cant get windows to completley come up i tried last known good and safe modes and the error still occirs

OK. You can get another hard drive and mount it as Master and set your current Hard drive to Slave. (or separate them on primary and secondary IDE interfaces. Install W2K on the new drive with all updates ans service packs. When that's up and stable, copy the MP3's and video files to the new drive. then Nuke&Pave the old one.