im not sure if this is the right place to POST this, im sure you are thinking its not from the title but let me explain
recently my windows xp computer crashed and everytime i try to reboot it gives me the BSOD saying there is a registry error. ive tried safe mode, RECOVERY console, setup cd, bootdisks, and all sorts of other windows boot options. so heres were it gets linux related.
a year or so ago i made some linux live cds just to play around with. so i got the idea that maybe if i could get one of them to run i could access the windows harddrive(i beleive its called mounting the hdd) and transfer all my important files onto a external hdd. the problem is i know nothing of linux. i have gotten a Knoppix std live disk to run but i dont know where to go next.
so can anyone out there HELP me out, or explain if they have a better solution? im desperate...sure, we can help.
pop in the linux cd. I'd recommend openSuSE but since you already have knoppix, you could go with that. boot into the live cd environment. browse around inside the operating system for a little bit so you can become a little more familiar with it.
open up the command line window.
login as root by typing "su" and hit enter (you will have to refer to the knoppix website if there is a password for root)
create a folder for the windows drive by typing "mkdir /windows/C"
mount the windows hard drive (if it's not already mounted) by typing "mount /dev/hda1 /windows/C"
after the drive is mounted, use a cd creator program in the knoppix menu to COPY the files you want from /windows/C onto the cd.

note: you may have to run the cd creator program as root so that you can access the windows drive.

Good luck!
thank you so MUCH for the help! i mounted the hdd successfully.
the only problem is that now i cant seem to find a cd creator program on this knoppix cd. i do have a SuSE live cd but for some reason it fails to boot properly. so i went back to the idea of transferring it to an external harddrive, i even figured out how to mount that and have tried to copy the files over (without success)
i tried "cp /windows /usbfolder" but get the error "cp:omitting directory '/windows'"

do you recommend continuing my pursuit of transferring via usb harddrive or should i find a live cd that has a cd creator program on it?
It should work to just copy it onto your external drive.
can you browse your windows drive at all? or the external drive? one of them could be damaged.
Try copying one folder at a time ie. cp /windows/C/My Documents /media/usbdrive
remember, you have to use the entire pathname when using any command. I'm not sure how knoppix sets up removable media, but suse puts them in the /media folder, which means you have to type /media/usbdrive to copy