I am not sure if I would be able to accept your explanation.

When you created a new partition, did not change the bootloader ? Are still using the older 'grub' (0.97) or you are using 'syslinux' now ?

If you haven't changed the bootloader, why do you say it is a bios problem ?
If you have changed the bootloader, how could not conclude that it is not a problem of mis-configuration of the new bootloader ?

"a modern os can overcome the problem" - in what way knoppix is not a "modern os" ? Seems that you are mixing bootloader issues with OS ( linux ).