Good news, i was able to boot the Knoppix DVD on the desktop. Even better, I was able to access the bad partition.

Only problem, I am still relatively new, and am having trouble creating a new folder to copy the files to. I get a messge saying I don't have permission to create that folder.

Anyway, I will search the forums and see what I can find.

YIPPPPEEE! (Sorry, can't help myself; after almost 2 years of trying to get into this partition, I finally do!)