In a little "Partition" problem

[danvds3]

Here's my problem in a nutshell:
I've reached my "Main Partition Limit of 4"

OK, I only actually know of 2 partitions (they were only shown on windows as Local Disk and Backup).

I tried partitioning into the three partitions needed:

- /root (5gb)
- linux-swap (1024mb)
- /home (remainder approx. 28gb)

I couldn't even make ONE of them because there was 2 EXTRA partitions (Fat16 and Fat32)

the fat 16 was rather small only a few mb and the fat 32 was a 3-4gb partition.

I'm guessing that the fat32 partition is dell's system restore partition, correct me if i'm wrong, I'm scared to delete both of the partitions incase I ruin the OS.

The problem is i've spent 2 days trying to get linux (involves backups etc.) and I really want it. Should I delete these two unknown partitions (All I know is that deleting them will NOT affect my OS because they're seperate. If I do delete them, and possibly won't be able to system restore, does dell supply system restore online or on a cd in emergencies???

Please can someone direct me in the right direction, shall i delete? or will I have to just forget linux (Which I REALLY DON'T WANT TO BE THE CASE lol)

[smolloy]

Hmmmm. Nasty hidden partitions. Probably some backup nonsense -- instead of supplying you with a complete copy of XP, they give you a backup partition that restores the computer to its factory state. Including all the idiotware that tends to come with computers these days.

So you have these two hidden partitions, plus a partition for XP, which means you can still make one more partition? You could make this an "extended partition", which is basically a primary partition that contains other partitions (which are known as logical partitions). Since the extended partition is you're fourth primary partition, you are free to put a load of partitions inside it. So you could further subdivide it into /, swap, and /home.