I have a working maxtor onetouch 300 gb on linux.

if i remember correctly knoppix configures automatically correct if its connected on boot time.

i have conneted the drive via firewire

I have this in my /etc/fstab

# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000,uid=knoppix,gid=knoppi x 0 0

you should make sure that you have a working hotplug

if you have installed knoppix on hard drive and have know a different user name and not the default knoppix you have to adapt your uid=username and gid=groupname to your actual user and group name..

hope that helps