Can't get Knoppix to boot from CD, laptop still tries to load XP

Back story:

Hi all, I'm hoping someone might be able to help. I have an HP Pavilion dv9700 that had been running WinXP. Everything was fine until a few weeks ago, when I started getting messages saying that my copy of Windows XP had to be reactivated. I'm not sure why I started getting that message, but I think it was due to a virus - a few days before I started getting the message, I got a weird message basically trying to extort money from me to unlock my machine. My machine was basically locked up, but I found a way to disable the process that was causing it to lockup (by killing the process in task manager before it had a chance to fully execute). I thought I had fixed the problem, but then a few days later I started getting a message at bootup saying I had to reactivate Windows within 3 days. Long story less long, the reactivation process was all screwed up and didn't display properly, so I wasn't able to even try to reactivate XP. After the 3 days, I was unable to get into XP at all. To make matters worse, I couldn't get into safe mode either; every safe mode option gave me a BSOD.

As it relates to Knoppix:

Since getting into Windows seemed impossible and I really need to get the files off my laptop hard drive, I decided to try to use Knoppix. I downloaded Knoppix 6.2 & burned it to a DVD, but when I tried booting from it (after setting it to boot from the DVD drive first), all that would happen is a cursor would blink for a few seconds in the top left of the screen, then it continued booting XP like it had before. I know the DVD is good because I'm able to boot into Knoppix on another laptop with no problem. It seems that my laptop is looking at the DVD before going back to boot from HD, but I can't figure out why Knoppix isn't loading.

Any ideas? Should I try a different version of Knoppix? An earlier version or a later version? I got v6.2 basically just because it was a smaller download than the latest versions, and I figured that pretty much any version should work for what I'm trying to use it for. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

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Moved thread to "MS Windows & New to Linux" by moderator
wps

There are basically two types of DVD media you can use to burn an ISO image of Knoppix on. They are called DVD-R and DVD+R. I have got an old notebook that does not boot from a DVD-R, but I can use a DVD+R medium. Therefore my first idea would be to create a new Knoppix boot DVD on the other type of media.

Another approach would be to download a recent CD version of Knoppix and use a CD-R because I never had issues using a CD-R.

My last idea would be to clean the lense of the LASER diode because I had recently to do so since my DVD drive did not boot from DVD anymore. I used a cotton bud and isopropyl alcohol. One has to be careful not to apply too much pressure in order to avoid irreparable damage.

Since you only want to copy your files from your internal HDD to an external one any version of Knoppix that can read NTFS should be appropriate if the files are on a drive with NTFS.

Re Knoppix 6.2: Generally, a newer version will be better, because hardware support is improved to a larger extent than it is dropped/new bugs introduced etc. (There are exceptions, though!) But I'd guess 6.2 would be quite fine for an XP laptop.

The most robust, but of course not easiest way to access the files, is to take the hard disk out, mount it in an external cabinet and access them from there. The replace it in the pc. I'm pointing to this partly because the important files should have been backed up to external media already, so this could be a way for you to get backup in place.

Otherwise, whenever a PC is able to boot from USB, that will be the easiest way to use Knoppix for maintenance, as cheech suggests.
Good luck! :)

Quote:

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.. as cheech suggests

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I've deleted posting from "cheech"; he is a spammer.