Merlin,
Thanks for the references -
I learned a bit from them..
Like how to indicate 'no auto scandisk' and a couple of things about hidden , read-only files and the attrib command, along the way.
Probably, the cache did not get written, leaving the file system on the C drive quite a mess (although I can access files via DOS) .
I shall preserve files on peripherals as I am able, and
will have to re-install windows, after I have installed a new CD-rom.
Regards,
Harold