I've used Knoppix a lot, but never like now.

My laptop messed up and now won't "see" the hard drive. I believe that either the IDE or the power connection is lose, whichever it is, I don't have the right tools to open it up and it will take a while till I do. Now the good thing is though that it doesn't matter, all I want is my data, I was getting a new laptop either way since the machine was showing it's age...
Knoppix is now my only access and I want to create my own remastered version. Exclude everything that adds (to me) useless wight and add what I need (Opera, NetBeans including the JDK, Hugs98 linux equivalent, something to run every video format, NTFS read support which may or may not be included already).

What I want in and don't ain't the issue.
Like said I have the Knoppix LiveCD and nothing else. Just so I don't have to re-enter my wifi details, change keyboard, time, etc over and over.
I do have an external usb cd burner and I do have an external usb hdd that could be formatted anyway I needed.

Before I even start, is this possible? Can it be done with my setup?
What do I need to read first.