Oooh I think even I know the answer to this one..ah yes from the FAQ:

Q: I see the partitions from my hard disk on the desktop and can access
their contents when I click on them, but if I try to write to them I
always get the error message "access denied". How can I write to my
existing partitions?

A: The general philosophy of KNOPPIX is to allow as little write access
as possible. For this reason, existing partitions are either not mounted
or only mounted "read only". If you click with your right mouse button on
an icon, the "read-only" attribute under item "device" can be un-checked.
After this, the partition can be mounted "read-write" (for already
mounted partitions, first click on "unmount"!). CAUTION: writing to NTFS
partitions can lead to data loss, since Linux does not really support this
file system! However, DOS and FAT32 file systems are safe for write access.
Incidentally I found out about Knoppix in Computeractive..on their letters page someone wrote in recommending it...so thanks to him/her if they're reading this!

Btw if anyone can give a quick answer to the following two q's before I go looking:

(1)I tried loading the Gnome desktop last night but I keep getting an error I Gnome splash appeared but then I got put back to the bootprompt..........what should I enter at the bootprompt?

(2)I can listen to mp3's, ogg files etc but there are no sounds for any of the software, apps etc whatsoever...is this normal?

Thanks guys