Last I checked, NTFS-read was conciderred experimental (I haven't had any problems with it). And, NTFS-write was conciderred DANGEROUS (I heeded that warning and thus have not tried it).
EDIT : If you want to play with it, you'll need to look at the <a href="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Kernel-HOWTO/">Linux Kernel Howto</a> to learn about compiling the kernel. You'll also want to look at the <a href="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bootdisk-HOWTO/">Linux Bootdisk Howto</a>. I'd also suggest that you download RedHat's rescue disks from v6.0 (<a href="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/6.0/en/os/i386/images/boot.img">boot.img</a> and <a href="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/6.0/en/os/i386/images/rescue.img">rescue.img</a>) and use them as a road map of what to do. I normally use their root image and just add a kernel of my own.
I hope all of this is helpful