Yes, that is exactly my problem. Could I ask you some more Questions?
What exactly to you have on your USB drive. Did you use the tohd=/dev/sda1 command. Or is it an ISO file?

My impression was from all the forums that one had to install GRUB or LILO or something similar that would actually be bootable by BIOS then from there you could choose to boot knoppix.

My BIOS has an "External Devices" option first in line, but without the CD my computer it goes straight to XP. (What would be more logical for a Bootable External device than a USB flashdrive?).

But maybe I'm wrong about BIOS needing GRUB to boot, maybe I have a different problem.

Could you briefly explain
dd bs=512 if=/dev/hdb of=/devsda1 (I think you meant of/dev/sda1)
Maybe I just need to look up the cheat codes. Is this a boot command or a console command?
Especially if=... of=...

Godfearer