Thank you, Nanoda. I downloaded Knoppix. First I created a data CD and that didn’t work, and after poking around, found out I had to “burn” the “image” to “cd.” I “feel” so “clueless” about this “entire” process…
But I did it. Found my files. Today the bank will be open and I can get my backup drive out of the safe deposit box. I’m hoping I can just copy the files to that; however, burning them to CD will be fine, too.
Can’t thank you enough for your suggesting of running a Linux CD. That would never have occurred to me in a million years. As scary as losing data is…my inner computer geek LOVES a challenge, and this was, dare I say it…kinda fun 