Installing and upgrading help

My hosting service (catalog.com) charged me $25 to move my site to one where Safe Mode was not enabled. I reinstalled Moodle and got the same alert during installation (Moodle may have trouble with safe mode on). When I questioned the host, I received this message:

"PHP is in safe_mode, however we use PHP open_base_dir support which will allow Moodle to create files properly, within your directory tree, as well as a tmp upload directory outside your tree. Moodle should not experience any problems."

I went ahead with the installation despite the warning, but Moodle won't create the admin directory. No matter what I type in for the admin directory, I get the following message: "The admin directory specified is incorrect."

I'm completely new to PHP and SQL. Will Moodle work in this environment with open_base_dir support? If so, how do I fix the admin directory problem?

Thanks.

Greg Salyer
Longwood University