I totally concur with your conclusions Mike (thanks for chipping in mike),
however there was a niggling point which I overlooked from JNB's original
post and consequently I (we?) made an ASSumption.

JNB, you wrote :-
.... tried booting in Safe Mode and it I get a grey screen
with Safe Mode in each corner.

But you didn't say whether you could progress beyond that point - i.e. have
you tried to access System Restore in Safe Mode? Can you do anything in Safe
Mode?

If Safe Mode just 'hangs' with the "grey screen with Safe Mode in each
corner", how do you close down? And what happens when you re-boot? Does
WinMe attempt a Scandisk? And if so, what - if anything - does it report?

Regarding rescuing your data, if Mikes plan doesn't work due to the driver
issues discussed, you may have to remove your HDD and connect it to your
'other' PC (a couple of options available), but don't expect to transfer
*INSTALLED* downloaded executables, only the pre-installed files. Updates -
as in WinMe updates - are all still currently available from MS - I think!!

Mart


"Mike M" wrote in message
...
A USB stick should work provided USB Legacy Mode is enabled in the bios.
This may or may not be an option and depends on your motherboard.

A Zip drive may or may not be usable depending on whether DOS drivers are
required and if so whether they are available. It does rather depend on
how the Zip is connected. If internal it may need no special drivers.
--
Mike Maltby



JNB wrote:

OK....will a memory stick in a USB port work? Also, I have a ZIP
drive on the computer. Please guide me, I speak some the language
but as you can tell I really am a novice.