Thanks, and yes, I´ve heard others have had great luck with Knoppix. Unfortunately not of any use in my case as I cannot get the CDROm to work.

I´m still working on saving my files. I have already succeeded in restoring many files from a protected storage, thanks to you and your guideline, Madmonkey! Now, the problem is to retrieve the Thunderbird emails and then I´m done. Problem is, I can´t find them...... I know they must be in documents and settings, but where?

being more exact: What I have done already is to move files from folders on the disk to another computer. Now I look for ways to transfer the Thunderbird emails from old hard disk to this computer I am on now (son´s, not mine - got my own domain on his), hopefully have them jump right into Thunderbird. Then later - when my own laptop is working again - hopefully have them transferred back to my own computer again.

Hi Karin, sorry for the delay in posting back,

I've not tried this myself, but this link maybe some help (scroll down to the bottom):

Thunderbird Help: How To Manage Profiles

Problems tend to come in multitudes... Sorry about the delay, had other task that *ate* all my time. I have successfully transferred most to one old computer (filled to the brim). But, have not yet saved the Thunderbird emails to another laptop (this, son´s) and the problem now is that I cannot bring this laptop into safe mode! Been doing clean-ups, ran system checks, defrags and virus scans. It reads and lines scroll, then all stops and the computer freezes - it won´t enter safe mode. I have to stop/restart it by unplugging the power and removie he battery. Does anyone know why that´s happening? HJT doesn´t show anything suspicious, as far as I can see and, this computer is otherwise working fine. So, until this issue is solved, i just get no further...

Hi Karen, instead of taking out the battery, does holding the button in for 10seconds switch it off?

Also, what is the last line you see when entering safe mode. It can be quite a pause between the time you see the last line appear, and the time safe mode actually starts.

Last entry is agpCPQ (legitime system32 entry, google checked), then all stops. Now, new try. I´ll log back in later.