[solved] Poor-man's-installation does not boot from IDE-HD

While a 'poor-man's-installation' of KNOPPIX 6.0.1 on my 'USB-bootstick' works properly, I can not boot from IDE-HD in a equivalent situation ( -maybe I'm not able to use the KNOPPIX-cheatcodes correctly...).

Some explanation:

Recently I worked on a "fancy" USB-bootstick, and I've got one! Via GRUB-Menu (on bootsplash) I can boot several images (all of them resident as a 'poor-man's-' / 'frugal'-installation), for example SysRescueCD (with all its included images such DBAN, FreeDOS...), Puppy-Linux 4.2.1 and Knoppix 6.0.1. All of them are listed in my 'menu.lst' and are bootable without the help of any components of syslinux / isolinux.
(GRUB is in MBR of sda, /boot/grub and several folders (each with kernel, initrd and its special image) are in /sda1, which is FAT32)

I failed in the attempt to transform the situation above on the IDE-HD in my old Sony-notebook (PIII 433, 256MB RAM, 1024x768, new 60GB IDE-HD, 2 x USB1.1, does not boot from USB). The partition-table:

hda1 - primary, FAT32, WIN98SE (lite)
hda4 - extended
hda5 - logical, FAT32, WIN-Programms
hda6 - logical, linux-swap
hda7 - logical, FAT32, SysRescCD, Puppy, MicroKnoppix ...
hda8 - logical, EXT3, (it's empty for testing and learning linux...)
(GRUB is in MBR of hda, /boot/grub and several folders (each with kernel, initrd and its special image) are in /hda7)

Of course I adjust 'menu.lst' and 'device.map' (hda instead of sda)) to the 'new' situation. All images do boot (Puppy with the command 'pmedia=idehd'), but Knoppix (as Knoppix 5.x and DSL) resist.
All I get is a (initrd/busybox(?)/sh)-based debugging-shell:

Knoppix 6.0.1 (based on MicroKnoppix) # or somthing like that
waiting usb....
could not mount disk to /mnt-system
starting debugging shell..
sh: can't access tty, job control turned off
sh: /

It's obviously, that kernel starts with its initrd, but does not find its image-file (which is KNOPPIX in /Knoppix on /dev/hda7)

Ok, working on these shell with a german-keyboard isn't easy, but I can change folders and list files. I'm able to mount /dev/hda7 to /mnt-system (what Knoppix should have done!) manually, so that I can confirm, that the KNOPPIX-image-file is accessible while Knoppix-booting.

By the way, Knoppix does boot properly, if my USB-bootstick is connected: Kernel and initrd are booting from HD, image-file from USB...

Dealing with the KNOPPIX-cheatcodes 'fromhd=', 'bootfrom=' und 'Knoppix_dir=' in several combination and with several arguments (path, folder,file) does not have success. Booting from CD with the 'tohd='-command does nothing! I do not want to give up, but I have no idea, whats wrong.

Would somebody please be so nice to give me
- the correct cheatcode-combination, or
- an advice, where to read into (of course I did read some wikis / forum before), or
- a hint, what seems to be wrong.

Greetings from Bonn, Germany

Oliver Kosslowski