Backstory: Tried to upgrade from Win XP SP1 to SP2 so I could play Fallout 3. End result: BSOD every time Windows launches (guess I should have bought a legit copy). I figured I would use Knoppix to get my important files off the main OS partition, then wipe it and re-install XP.

The Problem: When I try to run Knoppix regularly (no boot options) it says, "Loading linux...... Loading minirt.gz....." and then goes to a blank screen. When I run it with the failsafe option it gets past that point, spews out a bunch of presumably helpful information way too fast for me to read it, ultimately ending with:

"Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry.
Dropping you to a (very limited) shell.
Press reset button to quit."

...and a command prompt.

It's a CD I burned a while back, is this likely to be a scratch on the CD or something? Or a hardware issue with my machine?

The last couple lines that look like it's actually working on loading are:

"Starting balanced_irq
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended
VFS: mounted root (ext2 filesystem)."

Assistance very much appreciated!