Recently, without my having added any new software or hardware to my computer that I can think of, I've been beginnig to have problems doing routine things such as clicking on a Word file that has been downloaded and having it open in Word, or simply performing my routine backup (My Documents, etc.) onto my zip desk.

Commands freeze, and they take as much as a minute or two to unfreeze. I've never had this problem before, and, obviously, it's quite annoying.

Does anyone have any idea as to what may be causing this?

I've looked at my system resources and disk space, and there is plenty of room and memory available.

I'm running Windows 98 (first version).

Thanks for any help.

Don