Liz,

The use of Norton AV is incompatible with Win Me and known to cause a
myriad of problems. So many that I'm reluctant to try and help.
Nevertheless when did you last run NAV, were the reference AV signatures
up to date at that time and finally how much has the PC been used since
then and was it connected to the internet?

I've had problems where the computer starts back up in "Safe Mode",
and I end up restarting in "Selective Startup" mode.

You mention being unable to boot to Safe Mode but instead having to use
selective startup. Which entries do you have to uncheck to get to the
Safe Mode desktop? Knowing this might help narrow down the area where the
problem lies.

Can I download the patches to another computer, and then load them
onto this old computer, or is that not an option?

No point. You need to get the Win Me PC running first. Patches, of
themselves, aren't going to fix anything.

Also, what puzzles me is that this computer works to serve the
purpose of a wireless router for my other house computers

Please explain. What hardware are you using. How is your Win Me PC
acting as a wireless router?

My goal is to save data to an external hardrive in any way possible.
I have many photos and tax programs/data that I absolutely must save.
Any suggestions? Can I do this via DOS somehow? I have only limited
DOS language knowledge.

Subject to your problems not being down to file system corruption then
there is no reason why you should not be able to recover all of your data.
Sadly however you cannot use an external usb drive when in Safe Mode nor
can you burn CDs. The easiest way, if you cannot get the present system
running will be to either reinstall Win Me but PLEASE do NOT attempt this
at this stage or to temporarily move the disk to another PC. One way of
doing this is to remove the hard disk and put it in an external usb
enclosure and then plug this in to another PC and copy the files that way.
--
Mike Maltby




LeopardLiz wrote:

Thank you for your response.

To answer your questions, when I attempt to access Windows explorer,
my computer stops responding altogether. I cannot access any other
programs and have to reboot.

I've had problems where the computer starts back up in "Safe Mode",
and I end up restarting in "Selective Startup" mode. I am not sure
if this is causing problems in other areas such as limiting my access
to programs/system utilities, etc. I am not a computer "techie", but
I am computer savvy.

My virus protection is not updated since I cannot connect to the
internet through this machine. I was using Norton Anti-virus, and it
has detected Adware/Spyware when I ran the scans, however, it was
unsuccessful in removing these programs.

My goal is to save data to an external hardrive in any way possible.
I have many photos and tax programs/data that I absolutely must save.
Any suggestions? Can I do this via DOS somehow? I have only limited
DOS language knowledge.

Can I download the patches to another computer, and then load them
onto this old computer, or is that not an option?

Also, what puzzles me is that this computer works to serve the
purpose of a wireless router for my other house computers. How is
that possible if I cannot access the internet on that same machine?
It is obviously accessing the internet somehow.

Thanks again...........