How to rescue my data files before reconfiguring the 2 HD's of my desktop PC?!

[Bas Roufs]

Dear Everybody

Attempts to repair the grub of the Kubuntu 9.10 partition at the
desktop via a "grub rescue cd" finally failed yesterday - in spite of
the major efforts of Goh Lip to carefully and skilfully assist me.
Thank you, Goh Lip, anyway!

Now, I am trying to rescue all the data files before totally revising
the configuration at the 2 hard disks of the desktop PC. I am
wondering how exactly to safely and effectively rescue my data files.
I did already back-up most of them at an external HD - except some
important recent files - amongst them the one generated by
KAdressbook. Additionally, about one percent of my files have not been
correctly saved as backup at the external HD. Only recently I
discovered a safe method to correctly copy/ backup each single file:
compressing them to a few archives at the external HD, then unzipping/
uncompressing them there. That's why, I am trying to backup all the
data files again,  I hope to get some useful advises via this forum.

One hard disk, sda, has a capacity of 80GB, the 2nd one, sdb, 160GB.
The sda disk contains 2 partitions: sda1 with Windows XP and sda5, a
data partition.. The sdb disk contains 3 partitions: sdb1 with Kubuntu
7.10, sdb6 with only data files/ backup and sdb7 with Kubuntu 9.10

So far, I have tried three approaches to do so:
* the live CD of Kubuntu 9.10
* "Puppy Linux" - both from a live CD and and a bootable USB stick;
* the most recent regular version of "Knoppix", from a live CD.
So far, I have been able to mount and navigate through each of the
partitions, except the most important one: sdb7, the partition with
Kubuntu 9.10., as well as various recent files I absolutely need to
recover.

However it may be, I really would highly appreciate your advise with
respect to four questions.

Which exact method(s) would you advise me to mount, file manage each
of the partitions and COMPRESS (ZIP) from there the data files to my
external HD? (I prefer to compress/ zip folders with data files
because it is an efficient and safe method to copy the files without
complications.)

Which live CD and/or live USB stick would you recommend me to use for
this emergency project: Kubuntu 9.10, Knoppix 6, Puppy Linux or any
other recent distro? (The desktop computer can boot both from CD and
USB. By means of my laptop and some small external device, I can
produce live CD's without problems.)

Which kind of boot medium suits best as platform for the OS enabling
me to carry out the data rescue operation: a live CD or a live USB
stick?

Provided that I do manage somehow to mount and file manage sdb7, where
and how exactly can I find the file generated by KAdressbook?

Thanks in advance for your advise.

Respectfully yours,

Bas Roufs, Utrecht, The Netherlands.