[admars]

I would have thought PCLinuxOS would have a desktop shortcut, if not a shortcut in the "start" menu should let you install it.

Knoppix isn't really designed to be installed to hard drive, they recomend using Debian if you're going to do that.

Regarding your install problems, they're all based on debian, seems unlikely but could be a strange problem there.

however I'd be more inclined to look at the hard drive and run a diagnostic utility on it, usually downloadable from the manufacturer of the hard drive as bootable iso, or on a disc like Hiren.