My PC froze after loading Iomega Disc

Toshiba Protege (I think 7100 or 7200 series) with WIndows NT, Office 2000.

I had been experiencing problems with Explorer for a while. Wrooried about the problems, I wanted to backup my files to a Zip disc. I loaded the Iomega Zip drive install disc in my cd-rom and it ran fine. I had to retart my computer after plugging in all the hardware (Zip drive). Upon start-up, my PC froze. It actually starts up but gets stuck at the password login screen (Ctrl – Alt – Del).

My real problem, I found out my files were not being backed up to the server and I lost critical information from a 3 week project.
I also lost all my contacts info in Outlook.