InDesign CS3 - Vanilla Install - Question Marks All Over My Content

Yes, I'm still using InDesign CS3 on my MacBook Pro from 5 years ago. CS3 has worked like a charm and I've never had a problem with any files until this morning.
I've got a 120 page book, each page with images and text boxes, none of which are threaded. I opened my file this morning and all my content boxes: images and text have question marks on the top left corner.
I have no plug-ins. The installation is straight out of the box with the occasional updates, which stopped quite awhile ago.
The error that pops up when I place the cursor in a text box is: "31-40-TasksAssemble-Instal.incx" cannot be located.  Another error is: "31-40 TasksDirectly supe-1.incx cannot be located. I have no idea what these mean and when I did a Google search there were only 3 returns and they were from what appeared to be software pirate sites. I can't find a reference to this on the Adobe forums either.
I've saved under a different name, different file type and replaced the preferences, all to no avail. I think the application is behaving as though I've "checked out" the content, but I don't share my files with anyone and the file itself isn't on a network - there is nowhere to check out to, and the commands to check in is grayed out so I can't reverse the behavior.
I'm stumped and I have a deadline! Can anyone help??
thank you!
Message was edited by: dnetmike

No one has worked on or had access to this file but me. I'm on a network but I'm a Mac in a PC world and no one would even know how to find my hd, let alone do anything on it.
I have to believe it is related to my moving my entire project folder to an external hd (not just the file as I mentioned before) as a means of backup. I don't know why it would matter or what it could have done unless there are files created in the Library that are somehow related/linked to the stories.
I'm still searching the Adobe Forums for something related but all ID/IC related discussions relate to people actually using IC!
I've unlinked all of my content from IC and now I'll have to see what happens.
[POSTSCRIPT]
I've been editing my layout most of the day and so far so good.
The oddity of each box asking for a link to InCopy, which has never been used, happened only after I dragged my project folder to an external hard drive as a precautionary backup. All InDesign files in both original and backup folder suffered this problem. I didn't dare open any other ID files for fear of corrupting them so I can't say how widespread this problem would have been.
I do not know why making a copy of a folder would have created this problem and I can't find any discussion thread that talks about it, much less sheds any light on the subject.
After unlinking all of the boxes from their non-existent "host file" the boxes remained intact complete with images and formatting. I saved often!

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