This one has me stumped...

[blogslut]

13. Go to pendrivelinux.com

Linux is an operating system. There are many versions of free Linux-based Operating Systems which are called distros. Pen Drive Linux hosts boot-installer software that downloads and converts the Linux distro you want onto a USB stick. You turn off your computer, plug in the stick, press F-1 or F-12 (whichever's correct) and boot into Linux instead of Windows. From there, you can browse the files that are stored on the Windows partition of your hard drive. If you want to save something you can just save it to the same stick.

It's a bit of a learning curve but being able to run Linux from a stick lets you get into your old files when you're locked out of Windows or Mac OS, for that matter. It allows you to do other things too like wipe the whole drive so you can install as fresh version of Windows or some other OS.

I recommend you choose a version of Puppy Linux because it's tiny, easy to use, it runs totally from the stick and, for me, it works every time.