The most important thing to get used to when working with a new operating system is where your personal files are stored. With Linux in general, all user's personal directories are contained within the '/home' directory.

In the case of Knoppix, a single user 'Knoppix' is created, meaning your personal directory is '/home/knoppix.' You can access this easily by opening the 'K' start menu and choosing 'home (personal files).'

Now, since we are using a 'live' version of Linux, designed to be usable on any system anywhere, by default your hard disk is write protected, and all data you create is stored in the computer's main memory. This means that your data will be lost when you power down the system unless you save it to some sort of removable media like a CD-R, floppy or USB drive.

Knoppix, like most current Linux implementations, can seamlessly read from Windows XP FAT32 and NTFS partitions. Unfortunately, the NTFS file system presents writing difficulties to most incarnations of Linux, including Knoppix; more on this later.

As we've mentioned, your hard drive is currently set to 'read-only' mode, meaning you will not be allowed to create, delete or change files on it, only open and view them. Let's look at how to set write permission on your drive so you can save files there.

Setting write permission on your hard disk(s)

If you want to be able to save files on your hard disks, simply right click on one of your hard drive partition shortcuts (hda1, hda2, hdb1, etc.) and select 'actions/change read write mode'. If your hard disks are currently formatted with the NTFS file system, it's not a good idea to do this (and it probably won't work.) A better method is to create a permanent home directory on a piece of removable media like a USB flash drive.

Creating a permanent Knoppix home directory

You can create a permanent home directory on a USB flash drive easily with Knoppix. This procedure allows you to easily store and carry files you create on Knoppix, making the whole 'portable operating system' idea truly practical.