New to the forum, stumbled across Knoppix after my HDD (or possibly Windows 7 crashed) on me for (good?).

M story:
Made an .iso Image boot CD with the latest version of Knoppix and boots fine on my machine, even though Windows 7 won't launch in any way, shape, or form. However, I'm having trouble executing some basic commands in Knoppix. The system often freezes up while trying to back up data still on the laptop HDD to an external HDD, or when I pull up settings for example from the main menu. No multi-tasking tried, just want to back up files that still appear to be there. Knoppix always freezes somewhere shortly after startup or during an attempt to back data up and have to reboot.

My question: would running Knoppix off a flash drive instead of a disc make a difference?

(or my HDD may be fried). Any comments or feedback are appreciated.