This is another program that saved my backside when I had a failing system. My OS was corrupted, system restore wasn't working, and I needed to burn critical files to CD before erasing my hard drive and re-installing XP. This bootable CD allowed me to get to desktop so I could access my critical files (game saves, lol) and burn them. This is a great bootable disk to burn and keep on hand in case of an emergency.

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html