The 8200 cannot boot from a USB drive. The later D-series (8500/8600) and some of the other newer Dell models can. There's no way to add that feature to an 8200.

Thanks for your reply. So, I guess if I want to install linux, I will have to carve out some space on my regular hard-drive and install GRUB. Are you familiar with this and can you point me to some instructions on how this can be done?

Thanks again,
Shekar

It depends on the Linux distribution. Some of them can resize a WIndows partition non-destructively (like Partition Magic). Mandrake can; not sure about Fedora Core. SuSE may be able to do it as well.

Great. I installed Fedora Core - and it did not do it. I heard that a colleague of mine tried SuSe and she was able to do it without problems.

I will try SuSe (at least to get the partitions right).

Thanks for you help.

Shekar