BleepingComputer.com: URGENT: Can a live CD be removed in order to make backups?

My friend's Windows box died, like an hour ago. I got them an Ubuntu CD - whatever the newest version is - and left it with them on my way to work. I want her to boot up into Ubuntu and run it live, then secure backups of all her data. Here's the trick: it's a laptop and she has one CD/DVD drive.

I need to know two things before I call her back, though: Can a live CD, once the OS is up and running, be removed so she can make copies of her data to DVD? And what kind of drivers/support/apps does Ubuntu have available for burning discs?

She is not the most computer literate, and I'll be walking her through this on the phone. I pray there are some simple answers to this. (The simpler I can explain it to her, the less likely she is to go into meltdown when she doesn't get it the first time. >_<)

Thanks SO much!

Turns out that you can't. Ubuntu runs totally off the CD, but knoppix can.

I'd use Slax...it's what I use for backups. On bootup it has about 7 options and one of them loads Slax entirely in RAM, so you'd be able to back stuff....

Alternatively, you can hook it up using ethernet and upload the files to the net...

Or you could remove the hard drive and 'slave' into another pc

Or backup to a thumb drive.

PCLinuxOS has a "copy2ram" boot option so you can remove the disk.
http://www.pclinuxos.com/

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Best option, 4GB drives are cheap.

When I made the topic, the user didn't have a thumb drive large enough to hold all their data. It was DVDs on-hand or nothing. I've since sent their sorry butt out to get an external hdd, and to back things up on a regular basis, so I don't have to do through the hassle of trying to get someone to recover an OS over the phone again.