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, and after going to both it should have 32. If you are missing any, post a list of the files in the save folder.

It is possible that upon restarting the computer, Windows detected the forced shutdown and decided some recently changed files (ie the save folder) were corrupt and 'fixed' them. In one case after a crash a few minutes after exiting DD, Windows deleted all the inv.b0 (IIRC) files in somebody's saves, though this is a zero byte file which could easily be replaced, allowing the saves to load properly.


Troubleshooting Tips (& manual install procedure)