I was excited there for a minute! But it says it only works in Windows 2000 and XP…
Bummer…
I’m new here but I do have some tech background. Without knowing more information, let me ask you this; Have you tried to uninstall avast? Then reinstall. or, can you get into your system tools and do a complete restore to an earlier date before all these problems started?
She cannot get into windows…deanna have you tried the F8 boot logging option to see where it gets stuck.
ScaryGary,
Thanks for you reply, if you read my first post it will explain. I cannot get into anything except with my boot disk. I am in what is left of dos on Windows ME. I have found out the file that holds the start up commands. My next step is to get into the registry and disable Avast there.
Wish me luck! :o
ReVaN,
I have tried the F8, tried everything there and it just goes back to updating my configuration files. I tried the step by step confirmation, turning each thing off and trying again. Still went to the updating thing! Ugh!
I think I might be on to something with the erase command, thanks to a link posted here on the board. But what is the file ext on Avast files? I ask because I cannot get in to look at them.
Still here and working, I hope someone out there is! 
Can anyone tell me the path to the avast files? Where does it live?
Avast normally lives here (default Setup)C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4
http://img61.photobucket.com/albums/v185/MemoryLane/bolt.gif
Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions! I was up until 4 am trying to fix this sucker. This morning I gave up and took it to a computer tech. If he can’t fix it, he thought he would be able to get the files that I need off of it. KEEPING MY FINGERS CROSSED! He said it sounded to him like a bad download file. maybe missing something, or part of it came in but not all!
Just wanted to let you know how this ended up. One thing I know for sure is, I will be in bed early tonight!
Thanks again and Happy New Year! :-*
Well i guess you could of just copied the files to a different partition that is if you have multiple partitions.Anyway HAPPY NEW YEAR to you too! 
I called the tech today, he couldn’t break it loose either, he did get all the files I needed and also others, my documents, email, and some software that I have purchased transfered onto my temporiary hard drive. He is going to run the recover cd and put my files back on. I am grateful of that.
He ran a virus scan and found nothing! I thought that it would be clean because I am careful there, and have good protection, firewall, and avast. He will finish it tomorrow and it will come home. Now I am going to be worried that this will happen again, with the avast update files I mean. I really like avast and how easy it is to use. What do all of you think? I respect your opinions…
One thing is for sure, I will back up on a more regular basis!!!
Well i haven’t a clue as to why this problem appeared in the first place but i think you should be fine.To be on the safe side try to burn all your important files and documents to a cd, or put them on that USB drive of yours.You should do this every now and then anyways deanna as you never know what can happen to your PC.If you have a backup program such as Norton Ghost i suggest you make a backup of your whole HDD. 
Cheers
Mikey