I have a 60GB external usb2 hard drive that i use to store downloaded music, etc. on through windows xp. i have never installed an O/S before but i would really like to get to know linux. can i partition the drive and install red hat 9 while still being able to use the other partition for my downloads. if so could you please explain how?

Thank you

I'm not 100% sure. Does your BIOS recognize it as a bootable device?

i dont know how do i find out

It all depends on the bios. If the bios can boot from the hd, then Linux can boot from the hd directly. If it can't, then you have to put certain files in your Windows partition to help boot Linux. Look around in your bios to see if it recognizes your USB hd.

how do i look in my bios do i have to do it at start up

Yes, you can usually acces it by pressing [Delete]. Howeve it varies from bios to bios. If you have a good bios, it tells you at startup how to to it.

after that how do i exit bios and get into windows will it tell me how to do it

Well bioses seriously differ... A good one shows what you can press at the bottom of the screen... If your bios has drop-down menus, browse through them. Try pressing [Esc] at the main screen.

i looked in my bios and i couldn't find it anywhere in there

Well I don't know what exactly to look for in your bios... but Linux can run from the external hd anyways. The main problem is, does RH 9 support installing to an external hd. Special measures have to be taken to get Linux to run from an external hd, they may not have thought of it. Search their site. A possible arrangement is putting LILO (the Linux loader) on your internal hd, along with the Linux kernel image file. If you want to leave Windows as alone as possible, you can put part of LILO in a file so it won't mess with the Windows boot. Windows will then load Linux with this file.

I will search their site and see what i can find out. thank you very much for your help.