Okay, I think I might have a slim chance of accessing some files here. My question now concerns the newest version of Knoppix (6.0.1). I can't figure out how to change my USB External HD (Western Digital My Book) to writable so I can put any recovered files there when I use PhotoRec. In the newest Knoppix version, the Lightweight Desktop Environment only has a My Documents folder on the desktop, not the icons for the different drives. I can see my external drive in PC Man File Manager but can't seem to change the read/write permissions. How on earth do I do it in Knoppix 6.0.1? Should I be doing it from the root terminal with command line commands instead? If so, how do I do that? I've read over a bunch of lists of Linux commands but am a bit overwhelmed!

Also, when asked which directory to use for saving recovered files when I'm actually in the PhotoRec program, I'm not sure how to tell which one is my external drive. Definitely don't want to write anything to the damaged HD! Perhaps I will be able to tell this by the permissions once I can change them?

Thanks so much for the ongoing help!!!