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| Go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ | This is the National Center for Biological Information (NCBI) site, home of Blast and much else |
| Scroll to bottom,
Click on FTP Site (left hand bar) |
Gets you to page where you can download programs NCBI makes available |
| Click on
> BLAST Basic Local Alignment Search Tool |
(avoid the Blast button at the top of the page). You should get to an index. |
| Click on Executables | This opens an index of programs |
| Click on blastz.exe | Blastz.exe is a file that contains all the programs and data files necessary for Blast to run under DOS (or in Windows). (If you want Blast on something besides a PC, you're on your own.) Your browser will ask you where you want to put the file. |
| Click on Save in box. Click
on C:
Click on new directory icon (a folder with a sun peeking through). Type Blast in the name box, press Enter key. |
You're free to download Blast anywhere you like, but be warned: LOTS of files will be created. I suggest a new directory |
| Click on the directory Blast that you just made. | Common error: Making a directory doesn't put you in the directory. |
| Click the Save button | Saves Blastz to C:\Blast directory. This should take a few seconds, or much longer, depending on your connection. |
| Get to a DOS window
(Run Command or Run Cmd) |
Blastz is a DOS-based program. You can't run it directly from Windows. |
| Type CD \Blast | Change directory to Blast, where you put Blastz |
| Type Dir | (not necessary, just to get immediate gratification).
You should see something like
BLASTZ EXE 7,808,692 09-10-02 4:14p |
| Type blastz | Blastz is a self-extracting program. Running the program
decompresses all of the files within it. You should see lots of messages
like
inflating: readme.bls |
| Congratulate self | You're done! |