fatal error on opening file

[Anonymous]

I am using autocad 2002, which came on a disk.  It is no longer supported.  It is loaded on my computer, and files are saved on a flash drive.  When I saved files to  my hard drive, they would save,  but I could not open autocad unless that flash drive was in place.  Now today, I get a "runtime error"  abnormal program termination, and then when I click on it I can see my drawing, but there is a "fatal error" message and it all goes away.  I don't have my autocad disks with me.  It was under something called mechanical desktop 6 when it was first purchased.  Nevertheless, it has been a great progam that I have used many times over many years,  but I have a project I am working on, and have many drawings saved that I cannot access.

[pendean]

>>>...but I could not open autocad unless that flash drive was in place...<<<
You need to open and save about a dozen DWG files on your computer, not the flash drive, for your old AutoCAD to forget about the flashdrive forever.
Then get in the habit of never ever opening a file from a flashdrive or using SAVEAS to save a file to a flashdrive.

>>>...Now today, I get a "runtime error" abnormal program termination...<<<
What is your OS? Something changed on your computer and it broke your old software. Find it, roll back in time to yesterday or last week, and see if that helps. If you are running Win8/10 then I suspect you might just be totally out of luck anymore.