RICHMOND -- The Department of Motor Vehicles is expected to resume normal operations today, more than a week after a state computer meltdown left the agency unable to process driver's licenses at its customer service centers.

The agency will extend operating hours at all 74 of its customer service centers until 6 p.m. today and Friday. DMV also extended hours at 14 of its customer service centers for Saturday, including the Roanoke office. The Roanoke DMV will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

A backlog of driver's license applications has accumulated since last Wednesday, when a major hardware failure affected computer systems in more than two dozen state agencies.

DMV estimates that 35,000 to 45,000 customers have been unable to receive or renew licenses or identification cards since the outage began.

DMV will extend the validity periods of most licenses and ID cards that expired during the service disruption by 20 days, allowing more time for renewals. That means a license that expired Aug. 25 will remain valid until Sept. 14. The Virginia State Police said Tuesday that it would not take enforcement action on licenses that expire between Aug. 25 and Sept. 30.

Gov. Bob McDonnell said Wednesday that he directed DMV officials to extend office hours "over the weeks, and weekends, ahead" to assist customers affected by the service disruption.

The Virginia Information Technologies Agency is continuing efforts to restore access to data systems and files for state agencies affected by the hardware failure, which caused 13 percent of the state's storage servers to stop working.

"The recent computer outages impacting state agencies, and the citizens they serve, are disappointing and unacceptable," McDonnell said.