Request for help to install backtrack

[Josef Lowder]

.
Our daughter has sent the following note to request some 
assistance from the PLUG group on the issue described below. 
Please copy any response to this message directly to her at
Tracie at Actionline.com as she is not currently on the PLUG 
mail list.


I am attempting to install backtrack 2 to an 80 G Ipod and make it 
bootable via either GRUB or LILO. In theory the ipod is just a fancied 
up external USB hard drive. These are the (fruitless) steps I've done
so far:

fdisk /dev/sda1

I made three primary partitions and formated one of them in hex as
a linux swap.

my boot table then looks like this

/dev/sda1p1  *  1        2         128268    83    Linux 
/dev/sda1p2     3        5         9831780   82   Linux Swap 
/dev/sda1p3     156    1024    55841940  83 Linux

I then try to use the mkfs ext3 command which executes successfully 
but blows away my partition table. I have a feeling it is because I 
am using the syntax mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1 which I guess it is thinking 
the whole hard drive. However when I try to mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1p1 it 
cannot find the device.

I've tried everything I can think of and can't get it working, 
however I know my Linux foo is not strong so I humbly beg your help .

Or if anyone knows of a simpler way to skin this cat I am all ears.