Obviosuly a newbie as I can't figure out which software to use to move folders from one drive to another via the or KNOPPIX LiveCD.?

I was hoping there existed an Explorer-like software (if it Conqueror I haven't figured out how to do so) to move folders (gigs of them) from one drive to another drive--preferably an external drive attached via USB or to my laptop.

Note: Microsoft Windows can not in any way be accessed except via Recovery Console hence my reason for being here and for the LiveCD.

Problematic PC specks:

OS: Windows XP home OEM
Hardware: Computer: no brand name --OEM
AMD 64 Athlon 3500+,
MSI ‘K8N Neo4 motherboard, nVidia chipset based
nVidia GeForce LE Graphics card.
RAM 2 gig,
DVD: LiteOn DVD-rw SHM
CD: Lite-on LTR-52246 (CD-rw)
Floppy: none
Kitchen Stove: Just kidding ;-)
BIOS: Award ver. V1.D 052206 11:35:51
Note: in BIOS Standard CMOS settings IDE Primary Master and Slave are set to [none]. The Secondary Master is the DVD drive and the Secondary Slave is the CD drive. While the IDE Third Master is the HD ‘WDC WD1600JS-60MH
Drive C: and D: NTFS Drives E: and F: FAT32

Name of external drive: Hitachi travelStar N155

Oops forgot to mention, if possible this moving would be done via a drag-&-drop method

thank you

Have begun to figure things out. Thus far have realized that my drives have been renamed from , for ex, D: to SDA6. However, if I R-click on 'copy' I actually do see my drives named as window has via a letter (C:, D: etc.). However, I still can't seem to copy. for I get an error message saying, "Could not write to..." Obviously I'm doing something wrong but what? Also would rather not copy but move.
I would assume that it can copy if I get to the drives named C, D etc instead of where I am which is SDA6 etc.

Are you trying to copy to an NTFS drive?
Linux, although it can read them, cannot write to NTFS drives (which is what Windows uses). That's why you can't copy your files. There are a number of ways to add this functionality, but since you're using Knoppix, a liveCD distro, it'll be a lot harder to do, because it involves installing and/or compiling things from source, and liveCDs don't allow you to make any permanent changes to your setup.

By the sounds of it, your BIOS got screwed up. I don't think you even need to back up your files (if that's what you're trying to do). From the windows recovery console, type "fixmbr", or something of the like.

problem was with hard drive which was replaced with a new one --thanks for the help

quincy_the_penquin: though problem above, as mentioned, has been solved, I'm nevertheless curious to know about what you said, "Linux... cannot write to NTFS drives... There are a number of ways to add this functionality.
So How does one add this funcionality? Currently am trying ubuntu.

Thanks

The software I use for NTFS read/write is ntfs-3g. This link leads to a good ntfs-3g guide for Ubuntu: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ntfs-3g?highlight=%28ntfs-3g%29