all i get is a blank screen??

i'm trying to recover my xp pro system using noppix to save my data.

When it boots from cd everything seems fine, it detects hardware etc, but then i just get a blank screen...why??? :?:

Its an NEC Versa P700 laptop - pls help!

What brand/model of graphics?

I've the same problem, but I'm using real old hardware, like one Clone pII 333, using some old sis graphics adpater and one Dell Optiflex 5133.

I get video using "Damm Small Linux" (knoppix offspring) in the most simple video mode

Its got ATI M7 graphics.

Knoppix seems to work in failsafe but then i dont have any network devices etc so thats no good!

All i need to do is recover my files then i can kill the os and start again.

mmm, you should read another forum who talks exactly about this theme. How to copy files using knoppix.

If you don't get any graphical interface is a bit tricky to copy files. But using the command line you coul do something. For this, you need an external device, like a usb memory or a external hard disk. Having one device of these you only need to get a terminal prompt (ctrl alt f1), an there you can use some simple commands.

cd change directory
cd /mnt/sda1 change to an external device
ls show files
ls /mnt/hda1 chow files from first hard dsik (generally c:)
cp /mnt/hda1/*.* /mnt/sda1 copy al files (doesn't include subdirectories) from c to external unit