Quote Originally Posted by gurdian
Recently, my laptop crashed and now all that shows up is the BSOD saying "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME'

I have large amounts of data, about 30 gigs which I need to extract from the laptop.

I've decided to use Knoppix to extract the data, but sadly, I'm a uber n00b in Knoppix.

I've been hearing horror stories about how Captive-ntfs can screw the whole HD up?

If that being the case, I need to know of a way to copy all that data (30 gigs of NTFS files), into a new HD using Knoppix. Without any loss of data.

I apologize if this question sounds repetitive in the forums but I am at a desperate state and rushing for time. The data in the HD is extremely important and I cannot risk doing something wrong.

Just how large are the individual files themselves?

Knoppix should be able to read the NTFS file just fine with no risk, as long as the data is still there (not Knoppix's fault if Windows already destroyed the data). Where you can put that data depends somewhat on what other places you have to store the data (if another disk on the same computer it should not be an NTFS partition). If you have a local network you might transfer it to another computer with FTP or by getting networking going between Knoppix and the other box (file system on the other box is not an issue here). If the individual files are 650 megs or under in size I can show you how to write them to CD, even if you have only one CD drive (as long as it's a writeable drive). Oh, we should also ask how much memory you have on this system (it might allow you to use the totam option and make things even simplier).