Install Knoppix with out partition

[kwyjibo730]

Is there anyway to install and boot to Knoppix on the HDD without partitioning, and if so, does Knoppix essentailly become fully functional Linux

[ruymbeke]

Is there anyway to install and boot to Knoppix on the HDD without partitioning, and if so, does Knoppix essentailly become fully functional Linux

You may try to boot from the ISO cd image file stored in your hdd, cf:
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11796 & http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Win_Partition
I use it every day. You will have the same limitations as booting from the cd/dvd except that it boots way faster.
And you may consider the use of a persistent home directory to prevent loosing your data every time you boot ...
Cheers, Gilles

[sakiZ]

You could buy a small 2nd HDD off Ebay. Install Knoppix on it if you must. Better yet, Kanotix.

No partitioning issues or tricky stuff.

Super safe too.

sakiZ

[kwyjibo730]

How could I create a persistent home directory, or would it be easier just to write to my main HDD (though I've heard this isn't recommended)?

[Harry Kuhman]

You could buy a small 2nd HDD off Ebay.

Or better yet, buy one that actually works at a local store, get a new drive, don't pay shipping, know that you're really going to get something, and likely pay a lot less than the electronic bay of thieves will take from you. I can buy a new large (120 gig) drive for a lot less (after rebate) than I would have to pay for a dubious quality hunk of junk from e-bay.

[kwyjibo730]

The issue isn't about getting a new hdd; (I certainly wouldn't use ebay for that anyway) I could easily do that on my own. I want to know how to set up a so called "persistent home directory" or what a safe way to write to the existing hard drive is. If there is no way, please tell me and I will get a new hdd.

[ruymbeke]

The issue isn't about getting a new hdd; (I certainly wouldn't use ebay for that anyway) I could easily do that on my own. I want to know how to set up a so called "persistent home directory" or what a safe way to write to the existing hard drive is. If there is no way, please tell me and I will get a new hdd.

If you have a non ntfs partition, it is straight forward since linux has built in write capability for fat, ext, ...
If you only have access to ntfs partition(s), an easy and low cost solution is to use a USB dongle
since only the modified data will have to be stored, usually a small size and low cost device will be good enough.
If for some reason you want to store your data on a ntfs partition, I would recommend to only store data
within a chunk of blocs declared as part of a single file for the ntfs, or in other words,
create a (large) file under Windows and then under Linux create a ext2 file system within that file
which you will use as your persistent home directory. In this case you will never write into the ntfs.
From linux, you only modify some data being part of a list of blocs which only belong to the data area a file of the ntfs.
This is a very safe way to access a ntfs partition, since linux never nodify the directory structure of the ntfs.
Hope this helps. Best Regards,
Gilles