Hello Gurus,

I need urgent help! Here's the story -
I have a Compaq XP desktop which was working fine until last week. Now, it doesn't boot. It gives the following message:
--------------------------------------------------------
1720-SMART hard drive detects imminent failure.
Your hard disk drive is detecting an imminent failure. To ensure no data loss, backup contents and replace this hard disk.
Attribute Failed: # 05
--------------------------------------------------------

On trying to boot it complains about missing system files.

At first, I thought that my hard drive is fried. But then I am able to access/view all my precious data using Knoppix (using CD)!!
So, I have a following plan to recover the data (and PC):
1. Copy all the data to an external drive. (I bought one Western Digital dual-option USB 2.0 hard drive 80 GB. It is preformatted to a single FAT32 partition).
2. Restore the XP to factory default using the recovery CD.
3. Reload the data into the hard disk from the external hard drive.

I believe my hard drive is fine, just the XP (boot/system files) is corrupted. Is that true?
Nevertheless, I am stuck at the Step 1 above. As soon as I plug in the external HD, Knoppix just freezes. The same thing happens when I try to boot Knoppix with the HD plugged in.
I am really a first time Knoppix user. I looked at the forum tried options that I could understand. Here are some details (A through H) that may help you help me!

A) fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10337 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id
System
/dev/hda1 * 1 9796 74057728+ 7
HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 9797 10337 4089960 f
Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 9797 10337 4089928+ b
Win95 FAT32

B) cat /etc/fstab

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
pts /dev/pts devpts mode=0622 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/auto/floppy auto
user,noauto,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/auto/cdrom auto user,noauto,exec,ro
0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/auto/cdrom1 auto
users,noauto,exec,ro 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 ntfs noauto,users,exec,ro,uid=knoppix,gid=knoppix 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000,uid=knoppix,gid=knoppi x 0 0

C) cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name

3 0 78150744 hda
3 1 74057728 hda1
3 2 1 hda2
3 5 4089928 hda5

D) lsmod |grep usb
usb-storage 54524 0 (unused)
usbmouse 1788 0 (unused)
usbkbd 2876 0 (unused)
input 3200 0 [mousedev keybdev
usbmouse hid usbkbd]
usb-uhci 21868 0 (unused)
usbcore 57120 1 [usb-storage
usbmouse hid usbkbd usb-uhci

E) mount -t vfat /dev/hda /mnt/usbhdd
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda,
or too many mounted file systems

F) root@ttyp0[knoppix]# mount -t fat32 /dev/hda /mnt/usbhdd
mount: fs type fat32 not supported by kernel

G) root@ttyp0[knoppix]# mount -t auto /dev/hda /mnt/usbhdd
mount: you must specify the filesystem type

H) root@ttyp0[knoppix]# mount -t vfat /dev/sda /mnt/usbhdd
mount: /dev/sda is not a valid block device


FYI, I am runnig Knoppix using a CD.
Can anyone please tell me how can I achieve what I am trying to do?
Again, this is very first time I am trying to use knoppix. I may need detailed Instructions compatible to a novice.
Greatly appreciate your help!

Thanks,
Vinay