There are now many "Live CD" versions of Linux out there, but one of the first is still the best : Knoppix. At version 4.02 now, it's too good not to play with.
Often my first weapon of choice against a drive that 'won't boot' is Knoppix. I can quickly boot to a GUI interface, map a drive to a Windows (or Linux or any SMB) share somewhere on the network, and copy data off of the 'bad' drive (yes, even NTFS data). I can also mount another drive in the system and copy data over that way. I can even create an image of the 'bad' drive.
And that's not even the tip of the iceberg as to what this thing can do. Need to RDP into a windows box? Host a terminal session? Surf the net? Knoppix includes recent Linux software and desktop environments, including such applications as OpenOffice.org, Abiword, Gimp, Konqueror, Firefox, Apache, PHP, MySQL and hundreds of other quality open source programs.
Want the entire list? Take a look here. Prepare to be impressed.
And all this comes before what may be Knoppix's biggest asset, which is giving Linux newbies a chance to play in a fully functional Linux environment without having to install a thing, and without hurting anything (unless it's really on purpose!)
It's a long download for the CD, and the DVD is longer but has even more stuff. Go get it and play. You'll find yourself depending on Knoppix before you know it.
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