First suggestion - Assuming you've done nothing else since the problem
started (except what you have described) AND it happened fairly recently
(past few days) then run System Restore and roll-back to the last time/date
when things behaved normally.

See if that helps before you need to worry about recovering your photos.

Mart


"EJ" wrote in message
...
Running ME on a Compaq Presario. Everything's fine. Shut it
down one night and the next day when I start it up there is
no mouse pointer to be seen on the desktop. Also, the
display changed to 16 colors and the lowest resolution. I
can TAB through to the controls settings and change the
display properties back to where they were but then on
restart they change back. I can see the mouse (and use it)
after I boot up in the safe mode. The PC is 4 yrs. old. I'd
trash it, but I need to get my photos off 1st. And in the
safe mode, it won't let me move the photos to a CD. Any
suggestions? Thanks so much!!