Can I backup my PC if it doesn't startup?

My hp laptop won't startup and I have tons of doents on there that would make me devestated if they were deleted. Is there any like boot CD that I can use to like backup my doents on a cd or make a backup or just startup straight to windows vista so I can do it all there? This happened once before and the geek squad said that I need $100 to back it up and I do not have the money now. If there isn't any cd or whatever, thhen can I like take out the harddtive of my laptop and put itcinto my desktop. And oh yeah, I also though about if Ivan just start I'd up to the point that I can network share it with my desktop computer, I can access and copy the doents there. PLEASE HELP!!!