|[...]can I salvage my data (Word docs., etc) from the old directory
|and put them in the new one?
| Roland

Heh.  Another chance to link to one of my favorite stories:
"Is the data on this computer very important?" by GuyFawkes
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=121551&cid=10229143&threshold=3&mode=nested
{/scolding}

You seem to believe it isn't *already* damaged beyond retrieval.
I would stop trying to put stuff ONTO this disk
UNTIL the stuff that I considered valuable had been recovered from it.

The logical ways to do this are:
1) Use a bootable Linux CD or bootable thumbdrive.

2) Find a nerd with a working box.
 Take the drive out of your box and mount it as a slave in his.

3) Buy another (used?) HDD and install an OS on it.
 (Configure the old drive as a slave.)

Once you have an OS running FROM ANOTHER DISK,
copy the data onto CDs/DVDs/thumbdrives.

Make at least 2 copies of anything valuable
and move one set MILES away from this computer.

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