Problem expanding using expand command in Recovery Console

[fj62alex]

Hi,
I hope someone will provide some suggestions. I am trying to replace corrupted explorer.exe using recovery console EXPAND command. I have Win XP SP2 on Dell Inspiron 531s with 2 drives.
Here is what I've done:
1. Boot from XP CD
2. Entered admin passord
3. Selected C:\Windows (was #2)
4. Copied E:\I386 explorer.ex_ to C:\windows\explorer.ex_
5. Renamed explorer.exe to expolorer.exe.old in C:\windows
6. Now, when I did EXPAND explorer.ex_ explorer.exe, I recieved and a message: "The File Could Not be expanded"
I've tried an original Win XP Pro CD and Reinstallation CD that came with Dell.

Am I doing something wrong???????????? Please help, I don't want to do a fresh install.

Thanks,
Alex