Can anyone point me to the solution...?

One minute it worked perfectly - I could click on the hda1 or hbd1 or CDROM or Floppy icon on the desktop, and the relevant folder would open. I could copy and paste, move files around, and do all the file management things I want.

The next minute, clicking on a file folder on the desktop brings up the message "Sorry - Kdesktop. KDEInit could not launch'/mnt/hda1' " (or whichever drive I click on).

I tried various actions, none of which fixed it. Rebooting did not bring back the file folder function either. I can get to the folder contents and navigate normally by using File Manager in SuperUser mode, but shouldn't need to do that.

I've searched the forums and Google but found no answer.

What do I do to get the file folders back?

It's Knoppix 3.8.2 installed on the hard drive of an old Pentium 600MHz machine with 512MB of RAM and three hard drives, one CDROM drive, and one floppy drive.