due to a long story that I dont have time to tell, I'm trying to share files on a computer w/o using windows networking or modifying the hard drive in such a way that would prevent windows from booting (ie, installing linux). which means that I need bootable CD distro.

so what I'm looking for is a bootable CD distro that will boot into a mode that mounts all the drives, gives FTP access to '/mnt', and has read/write capacity on the mounted hard drives. the physical computer is connected to a router with DHCP and has a common linux compatable LAN card, but I will not have the ability to connect a monitor & keyboard to it every time it boots, so its gota be automated. (yes, the computer uses the FAT filesystem)

I dont know if a distro like this exists, I will have the ability to store some kind of configuration file on the HD (but booting from the config has gota be automated), but I cant modify it in such a way that would prevent windows from booting when the CD is not present.

any ideas?

The bootable business card (http://www.lnx-bbc.org/) should be capable of doing what you want, but not out of the box. It includes the capability of running your custom scripts to set things up after it boots (http://www.lnx-bbc.org/bbctools-User...#User_tarballs).