Office 97 will work with standard Windows XP (home or pro). However, if
the "disaster" (you don't say what that is) is an incomplete version of
XP on non-compatible hardware (did you check hardware compatibiltity
with Microsoft's tools before doing the upgrade?), then I guess anything
can happen and things may not work. First ensure you XP install is solid.
Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.
rms