Yesterday when I got home my son had been on the computer. Though music was playing, there was a box on the screen about an illegal operation and the program would be shut down.

No big deal - I have seen this many times. BUT this time I can't get the computer to stop giving me this error. I have tried cold booting, going into the safe mode to check on programs, etc. But, every time I start the computer up again, I get the same message. It does not allow me to do anything except to close the message which in turns shuts the computer down again.

What do I do? PLEASE help and be very simple in your help. I am not computer literate. I do know how to reformat (as a last resort). But, I am desperate. I have IEPs on the students and PACT-ALT portfolios on there. All of this is due within the next few months!! It took me hours to do the work the first time, I am sick about having to enter everything again. The IEPs are saved to disks, but the old program would have to be installed again. And since we are using a new IEP program, I have to have the old ones in before the new one is installed. Otherwise the IEPs will not update. The PACT-ALT stuff is a horror story. They can not be saved to disk and would have to all be re entered. As you see, I am desperate. Any advice would be appreciated.

I will be checking this post before leaving school this afternoon. Thanks for ANY suggestions!!

Do you have anti-virus software that you can scan your hard drive with? It does sound like you have a virus.
Another thing to do is:
Go to your start menu and clik on run, type in msconfig and let it run...sometimes that will correct a minor problem.

If you have norton anti-virus in your pc, you can use win doc and/or system doc and sometimes that will correct the program.

If worse comes to worse, you could take it to a professional and have them retrieve the info you have saved.

That's about all I know. Maybe mac guy or someone else has an idea.

You can look for your lost emails.
If you had them in your outlook express, then they are still on your hard drive somewhere.
Rt clik on your start menu and use the explore option and you can usually find them that way.
Might take some searching.
Generally, they are under windows/accessories/identities/etc. (I don't remember all of them), do a search first for outlook express or outlook, whichever you have and then it will tell you where the files are located. After you find them, you can retrieve them and put them in your documents or on a floppy if you want them.

At least it's working again.