Subject: Help needed

From: Richard Wood <rlw28:at:cornell.edu>
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 12:12:38 -0500

Hi all

I know this request isn't really related to computational chemistry in a 
direct way, more in an indirect way.

I have a large EXTERNAL hard disk (120 GB) that I would like to install 
a version of Linux on.  I  want to be able to
install and run Linux, because there are a lot of computational 
chemistry programs that run under Linux that are easily obtainable.
Anyway, I am having some difficulties with the process, which is rare 
for me, and I'm rather frustrated.  I've purchased
Partition Commander, which works fine as far as creating a partition 
goes, but it doesn't see the exteernal disk, and the "Install
a new OS" wizard only creates a partition on my disk 0  (i.e., the c:\ 
drive), and it gives an error message before getting to
the point where I can install the second OS.

I'm afraid to use fdisk to create an additional partition on any drive, 
because I have IMPORTANT data on the external drive,
and no way  to back up any of the drives, other than using many CD's.  
I'm also afraid to just go and install Linux  on a drive,
for fear of what it might do to a disk that doesn't have a Linux 
partition already on it.

The version of Linux that I have has something called Linux for Windows 
on it, but it doesn't work under WinXP.  I've tried to find
a version that will run under WinXP, but I was unsuccessful.

I would appreciate any suggestions that will help me in the installation 
of Linux on my system.

As I stated, my request is indirectly computational chemistry related, 
so I will appreciate ANY responses that I get even more

Thanks in advance,
Richard