Knoppix live CD and data recovery help needed!

My system (XP SP2 home) locked up right in the middle of a system restore. Now I can't boot to windows or safe mode. I downloaded and ran the Knoppix live CD to try and access some really important files and burn them to a CD before reinstalling Windows. The problem is my system has two SATA drives set up in a RAID0 array. Will that effect data recovery as far as them being recognized because they are SATA drives, their in a RAID array, or both? They show up on the desktop as two separate drives, and I get an error something to the effect of "unreadable file system" if I click on the icon.

I searched the board and FAQ'S and got some help, but nothing specific to my situation. I'm new to Knoppix and Linux in general, so I'm not sure how to handle this. I was told this was the place to look :)

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
TIA
Billy

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by comfortably numb

The problem is my system has two SATA drives set up in a RAID0 array.

---

Most raid arrays do not look as a true hardware disk to the system; rather the system sees the individual dirves and has to run a special software driver to give you the RAID functions. Unless there is a driver for your hardware for Linux that prefectly matches the layout of the RAID system under the Windows driver, then I know of no way that you could recover the data with Knoppix or any Linux system.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Harry Kuhman

Unless there is a driver for your hardware for Linux that perfectly matches the layout of the RAID system under the Windows driver, then I know of no way that you could recover the data with Knoppix or any Linux system.

---

I don't know if it makes a difference, but there is no dedicated controller card for the RAID array, its handled by the motherboard (ABIT AV8). Is there still a driver needed? There is a VIA SATA Driver on the Abit site, I would assume they are necessary? If so, how would I install them?