Nota - Yes, apologies for not including the 'how to's' ...
Knoppix is able to run from the CD drive and self-installs. Just stick it in the drive and let it run. When it comes up with a Command 'boot' prompt, type in 'Knoppix' and sit back until it has finished installing. (If you want to monitor progress, hit the Esc key)
Once it has installed, you can access the drives, check capacities, format etc. It's pretty intuitive but if you have problems let me know and I'll run my copy and refresh my memory on the exact sequences.
As regards other distros working, certainly, if they have been installed but the Knoppix advantage is that it runs from the CD without hard installation - possibly Ubuntu and/or Suse would do similarly.