O.K. I am glad that I can finally ask a question and it not be about getting Linux installed,however, I don't know if answers will come as easy for this.

I used an external HD to back up audio/video files I have. Now it is time to use these files with Mandrake. Exact error messages or things like that I will post asap. I have not tried yet and I have been looking for answers to this question. Any help ideas, links or suggestions will be appreciated. Even if that means putting WinXP back on this PC and then finding away to move them to Mandrake.

aint skered

also, Using FireFox on WinXP compared to FireFox on Mandrake it semms my web pages load slower. I have used the other web browser to and they load web pages a bit slower as well.

Well, I run mandrake 10 on my laptop and I have a 20gb usb harddisk. No problems whatever, plug in , boot and it appears as a removable drive, even with a link on my desktop.

So it should be possible.

thanks for your help

try mounting /dev/sda1 if that doesnt work removable usb drives are usually added under /dev/sda