How to install Knoppix 3.6 on a less than 3 GB partition?

Hi,
I have a PC which has Windows 98 SE with a 40 GB HDD partitioned in this manner:-

Drive C: = 9.75 GB FAT32

Drive D: (Extended) = 7.1 GB FAT32
2.65 GB Unallocated

Drive E: = 17.7 GB

I used to have Mandrake 9.1 on the 2.65 GB partition but once I tried to back up my whole C drive under Windows on the D drive, and somehow the 2.65 GB partition got overwritten. Now it shows as neither FAT32 nor ext2 but as unallocated and I can't boot into Mandarke 9.1.

Anyway, I want to install Knoppix 3.6 on this 2.65 GB partition. I cannot resize any of my partitions because I don't have a way to backup my data prior to resizing.

I read that the minimum recommended hard disk space for a Knoppix 3.6 install is 3 GB. Can I install it on 2.65 GB by leaving out some packages during the installation?

Would there be any danger of FAT32 data on the D drive being overwritten if Knoppix somehow doesn't fit into the 2.65 GB, even if I have partitioned the 2.65 GB partition to a native Linux File System and made the Swap partition ?

3 Gb is the recommended minimum size but the actual absolute minimum is 2.3G. Knoppix will NOT overflow into another partition if the target partition is not big enough. The install script checks (or at least it used to) for 2.3G minimum & refuses to install if less.
If you install on a minimum space partition like this, the first thing you should do is to get rid of some unnecessary applications to free up some space. This is done with the command 'apt-get remove <package name>'.
Immediate candidate for removal is extra langauges.
Here is how:
apt-get update (update your package sources so apt will work)
apt-get install localepurge (then select only the langauge you want)
apt-get remove kde-i18n* (remove kde language support files except english)
This will free up over 100 Meg.

You might also consider a "poor man's install" (PMI) which is described in the Docs section of this website.
This requires only 700 MB HD space and no repartitioning.

Greetings,
probono

Thanks for the very informative reply :)

It sure helped a lot. I am going to ponder over and try out one of these ways.

Thanks.

Ok thanks a lot, I managed to install knoppix 3.6 on my HD and it's working fine. I did the apt-get update, apt-get localepuge and apt-get remove kde-i18n*. However from all the language support files that were listed I couldn't find any that were of the form kde-i18n-en or kde-i18us i.e. the English support file. So can you please tell me what's the English support file listed as?

Thanks.