i’ve just found a nice news forum posting which concisely explains how to install knoppix 3.4 (c’t edition, featuring kernel 2.6) on a hard disk.
eventually, this is the most convenient way how to end up with “debian” on your hard disk! ;) as knoppix is a relatively slim distro (fitting on a single cdrom) there might even be enough space for it on my notebook’s “shrunken” hd.
ps. don’t forget to update to kernel 2.6.4 after installing knoppix (recently, some serious kernel security holes have been found -> always run the the most current kernel version. i’d also recommend to patch your kernel with exec-shield for better protecting your box)