Knoppix v5 - does not fully load knoppix desktop-PLZ HELP!!!

Hi,
I'm trying to recover data from a laptop harddisk which was running win xp home ed. I have successfully created the knoppix cd (have tested it also on my personal desktop running win 2000). But when i try to boot the laptop with knoppix, it does not fully boot. I get the initial screen where I hit enter to boot, then it shows loading linux and then goes thru hardware detection and successfully scans the hard disk. Then on the next line it says:
"Looking for cd in : /dev/hdc " and here it just gets stuck, i have tried several times but it wouldn't go past this point.

PLease , please help me
Thanks
uzee

try some of the many boot options available to you at the cd boot menu.

if it's a newer computer, i highly suggest trying something like:
knoppix noacpi

or the like. there's a whole list of boot prompt options you can try here: http://www.kernel.org/pub/dist/knopp...cheatcodes.txt

I would also look at the ISO files integrity and the burn process to determine if the disk is good. Sometimes bad media is an issue. See the following link for more info: http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Downloading_FAQ

One set of cheatcodes to try would be "knoppix dma" or "knoppix nodma". Which one would depend on the version of Knoppix you are using and your hardware's requirements. These usually resolve many optical drive read issues.

You can also try the "testcd" command. Look at the info on cheatcodes since it should be mentioned there.