XP can not load Word for Windows 6.0 files

Man, I hope SOMEONE here can help me. I've been doing genealogy research on my family for over 10 years now. The computer I began using had a Windows 95 OS and was quite good -- in its day -- but now it's on its last legs and I'm sure it won't be long before it completely goes kaput. I have over 900 documents full of valuable information on it along with about 700 images that I desperately need to get OFF that computer.

I bought a couple newer computers in between the time I purchased my old Win95 PC but never transferred the documents from one computer to the next because there were SO many things to transfer -- and that was before flashdrives became available. Now, here's my problem: I recently did buy a flash drive, transferred everything from my old PC to a newer one that operates with Windows XP, and EVERY SINGLE document I try to open says this: "Can not load Word for Windows 6.0 files."

Is there anything I can do? And please, don't tell me to go look everything up again. I also can't cut and paste over 900 docs into text format in order to save them. Have I lost those 10 years and my hard-earned research because of Bill Gates and Microsoft's bullsh**?

Thanks,

Rick


Edit by seaeagle: changed topic title to one more descriptive of the problem

What program are you using to read those Word 6 files?

Most versions of Word that I've seen are backwards compatible.



Shadow