Recovery Console

I have had a problem with my laptop for the last few months, I actually went out and bought a new laptop but I would like to salvage some of the info from my original.
I had a problem that said Unmountable Boot Volume with the bad machine and never got around to solving it. I see on many of the suggested fixes on this site that alot of people recommend using the recovery console or the original Microsoft XP CD's that the computer came with. My laptop never came with this Disc, it only came with the Quck Restore System Recovery CD's, and I do not know how to access the recovery console, unless this is the same thing as hitting F8 before the computer tries to boot. I am aware of the menu's where you can change the order of how the computer boots up but I am not familiar with the recovery console. Any suggestions would help as I am mainly just trying to salvage Outlook Express, some Microsoft Word docs and some Powerpoint Presentations. Any help would be great, and I never finished trying to fix this the first time around, it was a little too confusing for my computer literacy level. Thanks so much.