Can't click on "delete partition" in menu!

[stockhorse]

Hi! I've got my pc up and running, but I am trying to delete the 1 partition that takes up 100% of the space on my hard drive in order to make 2. I see that you are supposed to right-click the partition and select "delete partition" in order to beging this process, but when I try, I can see the "delete partition" option, but can't select it because it is faded out, so to speak-- not dark like the other options that I can select. How can I click on it? Thanks for your help!

 

[luvr]

Since your Operating System sits on that one partition that you have, consider yourself lucky that it won't let you delete it; deleting the system partition of your currently running Operating System is a recipe for a spectacular crash!

If you want to repartition your harddisk, then you will have to boot from an installation CD, delete the existing partition, and create new ones with the sizes set as you want them.

Otherwise, there are resizing tools available that will let you shrink existing partitions non-destructively - but I have never used any of these, and I have no idea how well they would work.

 

[alidabiri]

back up your data that you want to keep to cd's or other hard drive

obtain a win-98 boot disk from here
do an fdisk on the command line
clean up your partions as you like.
format your hard drive
turn computer off
put xp disk in cd rom drive
start computer, and tap del, f1, or esc (or whatever gets your to BIOS screen)
in BIOS screen, set boot sequence to "boot from cd rom first"
save BIOS and exit
follow instructions from xp
you will have a clean install on your hard drive.