These versions of Windows have fixed size memory areas for resources and other "objects." As a machine runs, it could deplete a memory pool and then cough up an error to confuse the user.
It's a bad idea to write to a hard disk that one is attempting to recover files from, so I often duplicate the drive, then place the duplicate as a slave drive on some Windows 2000 box to begin the data recovery. If you don't have Windows 2000 or another advanced OS, try SAFE MODE or if the recovery software won't work in SAFE MODE, review Optimizing Windows at http://www.aumha.org/articles.htm
In closing, all this leads back to why backup is such a nice thing to do.
Bob
Wind98SE; PentII,350, 512 RAM
After running PC Inspector overnight, finding 579 files and completing 40%, I receive the following:
An unexpected error has occurred, the software will abort.
Error code: 2147024784
Error description method ~~of object ~~failed.
Error Source - SMR2
If error remains, contact support team.
After clicking O.K., all was lost.

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