Is there a version of linux that can read ntfs
 

My other computer has the blue screen of death. Windows XP media center edition. cannot boot to last known good configuration or boot into safe mode. is there any live linux versions that could save some files on the system before I do a re-install, particularly my pictures?

Yes; quite a few distribution do support NTFS. This project may help http://www.linux-ntfs.org/doku.php. I do believe Ubuntu will automatically detect and mount the NTFS partitions. I'd download the Live CD from Ubuntu and try it.

Puppy supports NTFS partitions
http://www.puppylinux.org/

Any Live CD of a popular distribution should handle this well. Go with the one you have/prefer.

I had the same problem with Windows 2k and used Ubuntu Live to mount the filesystem. My registry was corrupted and there was no "last known good configuration". In C:\windows\system32\config, the registry is SYSTEM and SOFTWARE. "Last known good config" is SYSTEM.SAV and SOFTWARE.SAV. Copying SYSTEM.SAV and SOFTWARE.SAV back to SYSTEM and SOFTWARE with Ubuntu fixed my Windows installation.

Get the Helix live CD.
It has testdisk and Foremost, both of which find .jpg images flawlessly. When you run the command: photorec from a live CD with testdisk, you'd be amazed at what type of files it can scrub the disk for, regardless of the state of the file system.

EDIT: You may even feel the need to donate to such a worthy project for making it easy, by all means, go ahead and do so.

Mandriva supports it and I am fairly sure the live CD will allow you to copy files from a Windows computer. I used it in work when a colleague's hard drive refused to boot.

You can also try System Rescue CD.

Hi,

Look at 'The LiveCD List'.

This link and others are available from 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!