OKay after reading through a few more threads such as this one http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19208

this is what I did


1. sudo mii-tool -r
Not sure what this does - I would be really glad if someone could explain what it does

2. netcardconfig (as root) and configured my card to use DHCP and pick up an IP address from my router

3. ran ifconfig to retrieve my IP address and then pinged the IP address from my windows box which worked

4. started samba from the command line as root using sambastart and when prompted enabled all files to be mounted and shared

I went into windows network neighbourhood - clicked on the Knoppix share and entered the Knoppix username and passwoed (not the root ) this gave me access to laptop and all the mounted harddisks, I then simply copied all the files I wanted. Great

I was going to end this post saying that I was a bit dissapointed that I couldn't get a internet connection up as that would be the only thing stopping me from sticking with XP - but guess what - on a whim I just tried a website again in firefox and it worked!!!! Knoppix rocks!!!

Thanks for all your help guys - although I would still like to know a) how to find out what a device is named so I can mount it and b) what that sudo command did and why it all works now!