I am desperately seeking some assistance to rescue my files from my laptop.

Here's the scoop, and forgive me if I'm not providing complete info but I have very little experience with Knoppix and I'm not the smartest person when it comes to computers:

I have a Compaq Presario X1000 laptop which was until recently running Windows XP. Then for some inexplicable reason Windows XP decided it would no longer start up. A friend suggested I use a Knoppix disk he had to see if my files were still intact and they are. Now my problem is how do I get them off my computer before reinstalling Windows XP? My computer doesn't have a CDRW drive although it does have an internal SD drive. The internal SD drive does not seem to work with Knoppix so my 1Gig SD card is useless. I thought I might use my Lyra MP3 player which has a USB connection, but for some reason I can only copy onto a small portion of the space that's on it. I can't figure out why that is. Nor does the SD Card drive on the player work either.

I'm at something of a loss and my budget really doesn't allow me to buy something else right now. Can anyone help me? Is there anyway to make my internal SD drive work? Or to fix my USB drive? Or anyother suggestions???