My roomate installed program from a CD (it was a prep test for the GRE exam) and when I went to restart the computer this morning, I got an error that said "Error loading or reading Explorer.exe. Reinstall windows" Normally I would just do what it said, but I have my term paper project (a 55 page microsoft word doc) that is on the computer that I'm terrified of losing. I've been working on it since September, and I stupidly didn't back it up (I'm kicking myself now) - is there any way to save my data???

Hi Julia I wouldn't panic just yet! Here is an article that explains what you should do: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=299313 You will need a bootdisk. The article has a link to another article explaining how to make one. If you can't solve the problem using the articles, I believe you can re-install Win ME over itself without losing most of your settings and data files (but I'm not sure about this, maybe someone else in the forum can speak to this.) NOTE: Once you have a bootdisk ready, you might be able to use the command prompt to save your paper to a floppy disk before you proceed with the recovery - an added safety measure. The other idea if you cant do this is to remove your Hard drive, place it in someone else's computer and save your files to their computer. Then just re-install ME on your hard drive without a worry. Try finding someone who can help you if you're not comfortable doing any of this. I wish I could give you detailed instructions but it's been a while for me.

Install your hard drive as slave into a PC that is running XP. I know XP will do it but I'm not sure if another operating system will be able to start-up. Start up this PC and you will be able to look in 'my computer' and see your drive as another drive letter. Opening your drive will show you your files & folders and you will be able to copy and paste your .doc file onto the XP machine. I have done this before so I know it works. You will not be over-writing the file in error which may happen if you try any other method. Post back if you are stuck. Michael2

If you can get to a DOS prompt, use the ms-dos editor to open the system.ini file in your Windows directory and change the "shell=explorer.exe" to "shell=progman.exe" This will bring back memories if you've used Windows 3.x. Anyway, it should load the windows program manager instead of the familiar start menu and desktop interface. From there, go to file, run, and type in winfile.exe Use this to back up your data.