Errors during knoppix boot

[Kastor]

Try booting with "knoppix testcd" to see if it finds any faults.
Also check the md5sum of the iso, howto: http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/verifyiso.html
Oops, almost forgot: You'll have a better chance of getting a clean burn with slower speed, say 4x.

ok here's what i've done: i downloaded another copy of the iso, checked it with the md5summer and there were no errors, so i burned it to a CD (at a slower speed like you recommended). still no luck. at the boot screen, when i either use no cheatcodes, or type "knoppix testcd", "knoppix lang=us", "knoppix floppyconfig", knoppix myconf=scan", knoppix home=scan", or "knoppix mem=128M" i get the error i typed in my first post. when i type "knoppix toram" i get the following error:

accessing KNOPPIX CDROM at /dev/hdbl... cat: No file /KNOPPIX.etc/ld.iso.chache

/linuxrc: /bin/mkdir: not found
copying KNOPPIX CDROM to ramdisk...please be patient. /linuxrc: /bin/mount: not found
/linuxrc: /bin/cp: not found
umount: invalid argument
rmmod: no such file or directory
can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry.
Dropping you to a (very limited) shell.
Press reset to quit.
Additional builtin commands available:
cat mount umount
insmod rmmod lsmod
knoppix#

so that's what it gives me (the last line "knoppix#" is the command prompt).

when typed "knoppix tohd=/dev/hda1" i got the following error:

/linuxrc: /bin/mkdir: not found
/linuxrc: /usr/bin/tr: not found
/linuxrc: /bin/sed: not found
/linuxrc: /usr/bin/tail: not found
Copying KNOPPIX CDROM failed. /dev/ is not mountable
umount: invalid argument
rmmod: no such file or directory
can't find filesystem, sorry.

maybe that is more informative? i'm thinking the problem might be my cd drive is incompatible, but i haven't been abel to confirm on any hardware lists i've seen. i'm using a NEC nd-1300a dvd rw. it is the secondary master. my hard drive, for some reason, is set as the primary slave. my hard drive is a serial ATA interface, and according to hardware lists, this SHOULD work, but i'm not positive.
when i use a cheatcode to enable DMA (i don't even know what this is or if my drives are using it), the knoppix message refers to my hard drive as "hdb" and my cd drive as "hdc". does this change the cheatcodes i should use to access/use these drives (for example the "tohd=/dev/hda1" code)?