Toshiba Laptop Crash Recovery Advice

I have a Toshiba Satellite 5105 that suffered a hard disk crash the other
day--for awhile, it was asking me for the HD passsword at boot (I never set
one), which I understand was a symptom of a serious disk problem.
Miraculously, it booted today and I was able to organize the essential
files I wanted to recover. Since the machine couldn't find my home network,
I tried to burn them to a CD, but the machine crashed in the middle of the
burn operation (ironically, my network drives showed up in Windows Explorer
in the middle of the burn process--if only they'd shown up sooner I might
have been able to save my data by copying it to one of them instead of
trying to burn it).

Now when I try to boot, I get a text menu telling me Windows was unable to
start and asking me to choose between safe mode, safe mode w/ networking,
last known config or a regular Windows boot. No matter what I select, I get
a BSOD shortly after the Windows startup screen. I went to the recovery
console and ran CHKDSK, which said the disk was OK. The laptop is covered
by a service plan, so I can get it repaired at no charge, but I'd like to
get my essential files off it before I take it in to the shop. What would
be my best plan of attack? I'd prefer if at all possible to try and rescue
my files via use of MS disk tools or shareware rather than via the purchase
of any expensive software.