I re-installed my Windows OS today and wanted to install Linux Mint as a dual boot. Before the reinstall, I used the LiveCD Gparted to expand my C: from 25 to 30 GB. All went smoothly.

After the fresh Windows install, I went ahead and installed all the hardware drivers and other programs I need. Now I don't seem to be able to boot from LiveCD successfully.

On booting from CD Rom, it goes up until the screen with the Linux Mint logo and stays there (I tried giving it time, waited an hour and nothing).

Thinking something was wrong with the CD, I tried booting a USB drive. Used Linux Live USB creator to use the same .iso file to boot from. It seems to 'freeze' at the same point.

Formatted the drive, and installed UNetbootin and used the same .iso file. This time, booted it in compatibility mode. A few commands flashed by (links to pictures below), no idea what it means. I've taken a picture, maybe you can tell me what it means? This is the only lead I have to figure out what went wrong (Even if I don't want Linux installed, booting with Live CD to recover data is invaluable)

Pictures I took of the messages in compatibility mode:

http://postimage.org/image/1kxvk37ms/
http://postimage.org/image/1kxyv5wmc/
http://postimage.org/image/1ky3try3o/
http://postimage.org/image/1ky0ip944/

P.S: I don't know if this is important but I thought I'd mention it. I was in Gparted (in the LiveCD) when the screen froze. I had to hard boot the laptop again, and I haven't been able to get the LiveCD to work since.

Help!

A few questions for you to research:
a) have you tried rebooting the Gparted liveCD? Does it boot successfully?
b) in re the Mint cd boot proplem, have you checked the md5sum of the .iso you downloaded, and compared that to the md5sum published by Mint? A corrupt .iso could explain the consistent hangup at the same point via both cdrom and usb stick.
c) just to rule out the possibility of a coincident problem with the cdrom drive, have you tried playing cds or booting other liveCDs?

In the screen images you listed, I see zlib_inflate errors. The files in the .iso are compressed .gz files which have to be inflated (decompressed). If a critical file is corrupt, it may not inflate, and it may prevent booting to progress beyond a certain point (see item b above).

Have you ever booted the linux mint, the reason I am asking does it not come in live dvd version only?

Get a new cd and burn a new iso and check it when it boots up to see if it is OK.

Either some scratch on disk or slightly off lens or something.