I'm trying to use a Knoppix 3.9 Boot CD to rescue data off of a laptop hard drive (as suggested by a coworker) and it worked perfectly initially, could get into the hard drive and see everything... but after about five minutes of use, the CD drive would idle (flashing LED, no "spin"), which basically froze up my usage of Knoppix. Manually ejecting the CD and popping it back in would restart it for another few minutes and then I would get the idle problem again. Any idea of how to deal with this, or if it's the Knoppix I'm using that's the problem?

Also, anyone who's used it to rescue have any suggestions of the best way to get the data off? it's about 5 gigs of information.

Computer: Dell Inspiron 5100 (still under warranty), with external wireless
Rescue Problem: Registry damaged (trying to rescue data before System Recovery)