WE Branch Fanatic,
I am having a little following what exactly is your problem.
If your problem is that your CD/DVD player will not read CDs but reads DVDs, I would just try another drive in the computer. Optical Drives are dirt cheap.
I your issue is getting the data off your computer before sending it back for repairs, I would suggest an external Hard Drive or USB Pen Drive to hold your data on.
I would be very careful with the Recovery DVD. If it is a Restore Disk, it will destroy all your Data on the Hard Drive.
Take Care,
Richard