FTP from crashed computer to Laptop

Hi, I had some trouble with my Notebook and desktop computers last week when Entangle stuffed the display files on both computers. I successfully rebuilt the Notebook because I had a separate /home partition. Unfortunately the desktop PC (Suse 12.1 64 bit) was a single partition, and it will not be quite so easy. How do I get the files I want from the desktop onto a dive attached to my notebook? Ctrl+Alt+F2 gives me a console in the desktop. The Notebook is running Gnome. Once I have my data tucked away, I get adventurous. Many thanks Andrew Greig