When I bootup from my SuSE partition, I get and error reading:
VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
Trying to move old root to /initrd ... failed
Unmounted old root
Trying to free unused kernel memory ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 212k freed
INIT: version 2.85 booting
INIT: entering runlever: 5
INIT: Id "1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "2" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "3" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
[and so on until id "6"]


So, I basically have 2 urgent questions and one that is spawned by my curiosity:
-How would I go about retrieving data from this partition? I have a semester project on it that is due friday. Windows nor other linux distros recognise the partition. I could boot from this partition properly until I installed windows on another partition.
-What would need to be done to get it to boot?

and, less urgent -Why isn't it booting? What is going on?

Thanks!

try putting cd1 in and using it to boot.
after you boot, as root
cd /
mkdir initrd
then reboot without the cd

Well, I have a new problem now: the live-CD doesn't register as bootable. Any ideas of how to do this using the install CD (I tried the rescue system- it didn't show any of my original file structure after /home)? Or perhaps I will just go out and buy another copy of SuSE.

My gratitude,
erasmus.descarte

right, when you boot with the rescue, you need to mount / . so it would be something like

mkdir /mnt/Root
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/Root <- or whatever partition root is
then
cd /mnt/Root
mkdir /mnt/Root/initrd
then
umount /mnt/Root

then reboot

I get an error that it was not found in /etc/fstab

I'm starting to wonder- if I just boot from a livedisk or something, can I retrieve the data using it?

Try it again. I assumed you knew what i meant when i said to mount /dev/hda. I edited it to show you

mkdir /mnt/Root
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/Root <- or whatever partition root is
then
cd /mnt/Root
mkdir /mnt/Root/initrd
then
umount /mnt/Root

then reboot