Help with Vista problems

[greengrass]

Hi all..

I have been suggested downloading Knoppix to help cure some problems with my Toshiba L350 with Vista OS. Something happened to my laptop and i cant access the HDD or even boot it up. The HDD is not broken so someone said put Knoppix on disc and run it on the broken laptop to access all my info and then i could usb it to an external HDD.

Then use the recovery disc to put the Vista back on...as the recovery will put it back to `as new` state and all files will be lost.

Is this correct?! Also what with me being a complete novice i dont actually understand what all this Knoppix thing does. If someone could explain it in novice terms what it is i would really appreciate it as it doesnt seem to say on here.

Many thanks in advance.... :confused:

[utu]

Greetings, greengrass.

I'm no expert, but I've recovered from a few Windows 7 upsets, so I
offer the following reference as a possible orientation to your situation.

http://itexpertvoice.com/home/rescue-windows-7-in-five-minutes-or-less/

See also its M$ reference,
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744291%28WS.10%29.aspx

In the Windows 7 situation, one often can roll-back to an earlier state
of the computer and recover all the material it had at that time.
Images saved at each time updates are done allow this.

Since you say you have a rescue disk, perhaps this is all you need.
Good luck, and I hope this helps.