I am no longer able to boot my computer in Windows XP after it crashed when I was trying to update Windows.

I am trying to boot using a CD with the latest version of Knoppix just so that I can access my internal hard drive and copy some files to an external hard drive. I haven't had any trouble accessing the internal drive, but when I try to open the external drive, I get the following error:

Could not mount device.
The reported error was:
mount: I could not determine the filesystem type, and none was specified

I just bought the external hard drive for this purpose, and I am a total novice when it comes to Knoppix. Is there something I can do in Knoppix that will allow me to access the external hard drive?