> After looking further into it I noticed that the files were roughly half the size so there would be no utility that could create something out of nothing. I did look into the file using Word97 but could not find the two big methods that I had written. The sad thing is, this is my first experience working with Win98, it came pre-installed on the laptop.

I'm not sure how you rebooted, but Win98 should do an even better job of file restoration than Win95, certainly mine does -- so long as you do a proper Ctrl+Alt+Delete on a lockup to go to End Task. Of course, if you get a Blue Screen of Death, you may not recover anything useful...