Did you compress the saved game folders to burn them onto CD-R? When extracted, the files would retain their original attributes. Anything copied directly from CD-R should be marked as read-only, unless the file manager used can be set to automatically clear that attribute. I don't think this is the case for Windows Explorer, but MS may have changed that in XP.
Check the number of files in the saved game folder (in '..\Divine Divinity\Run\savegames'). Missing files might cause the game to crash when trying to load. A new game should have 22 files, after going to either Verdistis or the Dark Forest it should have 27, after going to both it should have 32, after getting to the wastelands it should have 37, and after getting to the Black Ring dungeon it should have 42.
.0 / .x0 = Aleroth, Ars Magicana, etc
.1 / .x1 = Verdistis, Council Hall
.2 / .x2 = Dark Forest
.3 / .x3 = Black Ring dungeons
.4 / .x4 = Wastelands
