Okay, I'll quickly go over the problem I've experienced over the past two days., followed by a few questions.

Okay, so I went to go into a folder I just extracted when suddenly my computer reboots on me. I'm then prompted with the black menu giving me choices of how to boot up Windows (the various safe modes, etc.). No matter what I chose, the computer has a UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME error and automatically restarts.

According to support.microsoft.com, there are two causes for this. You are using an old IDE cable, or the harddrive is bad. It also said that if the second hecidecimal is equal to a certain value than it is the malfunction of the harddrive. Mine was not that hecidecimal.

I also tried going into the System Recovery Console through the XP Pro CD. Normally I shoudl've been prompted with which installation to chose from (like all the online help pages show) but I am not. None of the commands work either, and I cannot ascend into my windows directory.

Anyways, I spent all day yesterday with no solution and no real answer to my problem. I heard of knoppix and decided to download it.

Today I was able to get knoppix up and running (I use linux frequently, not exactly a pro or anything, but definetally not a noob), and I was able to view my files. All of them infact. I went to delete the folder that I last used and I noticed I couldn't (I now vaguely understand the reason [different file saving formats]) which is fine. I then heard of another program similar to Knoppix but for windows called BartPE. However, using BartPE I was unable to view my files, and when I went to check my harddisk it had many, many errors.

This all leads me to the following questions...

1. What could've caused my problem?
2. Is it possible to fix this so windows will work again without a re-install?
3. Why is it that Linux can view these files but Windows cannot?
4. Any suggestions on how I can try to edit my Windows files so I can try to fix my problem?

Thank you for your time, and your help.

BTW, my current system which I've had for a little over a year now with no trouble, spyware, viruses, etc.

Gateway 3.06 GHz (Hyper-threading)
1024 MB RAM (Rambus)
nVidia GeForce 4
Maxtor 200GB Harddrive