Thanks to all for the options, I have now recovered my files by transferring over wireless to my desktop via the Samba network application in knoppix!

I have reinstalled xp home now also on the Notebook, but leaving about a 3 gig unformatted partition should I decide to install knoppix or another Linux based Distro to hard disk at some point. As yet, I am undecided about which Linux Distro togo with...

My notebook does have 512mb Ram, which is sufficient I think to run knoppix in ram, as suggested...

As a musician, my decision as to which distro to use will be biased according to which Distro has the best Audio Distro packages available on it...Judging by a Linux forum I have been visiting recently, there are quite a few to choose from...

Slackware seems to have quite a few Audio packages that run on it...