My Vista just all but ate itself >.<

Right now i'm running in Ubuntu, BTW. Y'know, its actually really nice to have Vista prove its idiodicy and not have to worry too much about it. I have another OS that can preform better!

But I still have some info on there that took a lot of time to make and I want to save it if possible. The problem is that I can't even mount the drive anymore. Any references I had to locations in there are now "unaccessible".

I unfortunately need windows for games and stuff. How can I retrieve my info so I can wipe away Vista and get XP on there?

Also, Can I install XP with Ubuntu already on here?