I have not heard of wide sucess with the NTFS tool in the latest version of Knoppix either
Harry, I have posted my results of success earlier in this forum. Have you seen it? Also there are lots users in other distros testing the latest tools. I continue to test it, and I did volunteer to stress test the new tools on behalf of users here, but I need you guys to suggest a test protocol or test criteria = what do you want me to test, for how long e.g. stability over 3 months at a million writes a day etc.....

Having said that I agree that the heat of a rescue situation is no time to learn and experiment with bleeding edge tools, unless it is the last option. Too many variables. First copy the data off somewhere safely.