partitioning hard drive

[walter]

thank you for the replies to my original query about re partitioning the hard drive. i'm sorry to have to raise another . if i delete all three partitions will the hard drive still be recognised in the bios. i was under the impression that at least one partition must be on the drive. i can find no facility for resizing partitions under disk management and i intended using pm to delete two and resize the other to take  up all the drive. also in disk management i can find no facility to mark C: as active. I am no expert in all this , just an old guy trying to learn and all assistance is greatly appreciated. walter.

[GX1_Man]

If you delete the partitions you will have to creat one of some size to install any operating system. You can choose the size from within Windows when the XP CD boots. (It's just after you have to press F8.)

You don't need Partition Magic partitions with a new install. It is only helpful if you want to manage, add, change, resize, etc. them after an operating system has been loaded.