Yea, to get exactly what you write about would likely require a remaster, and might be pretty tricky to be sure that you had closed all the options that a skilled user might be able to exploit. But it might help if you told us what you are trying to acomplish. i assume that you know that Knoppix defaults to read only dsk access, so you could read but not accidently write. Rather than a Live CD that can't access the hard disk option, if you are in a sensitive environment (such as concern about students), I would consider other options rather than a crippled disc: Perhaps unplugging the hard drives, or better yet mounting them in removable drive trays (these have become quite inexpensive for decent quality metal trays with fans and keys switches, although the keys are usually cheep generic keys that anyone can get a hold of) You could completely remove the drives easily if needed.. Another opion would be to disable the hard drive in the BIOS and then password protect the BIOS. Remember, if you just cripple the Knoppix CD and let other users use it thinking the hard drives are safe, you better consider that some abuser may just swap in their own Live CD (even Knoppix) and have all the access that you think you are preventing.