I finally tried a full-computer search on just the extension ".mm6" and there were all nine of the save files: "SAVE001.mm6" and so on. I moved them into a folder on my desktop, and tried the game: same crash occurred. Then I renamed them "SAVE001.tmp" etc. When I reopened my game, the only file still there was "autosave" and I was able to save in one of the slots and continue playing.Apparently the game searches for the save files wherever they are, chiefly by the extension. I could use none of them, but with them out of the way the game happily replaces them if there is nothing already existent by that file name.
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU everybody who pointed me in the right direction! (Finally got time to work on this puzzle after cleaning up some grief with the OS and antivirus!)
