Installing fresh copy of WinXp Pro on a laptop

[Chrisss]

This laptop isn't mine, but I'm installing WinXP on it for somebody. There are 3 partitions:

boot - 18GB
backup - 15GB
recover - 5GB

Should I just go ahead and delete all three of these partitions, create a new partition and install Windows XP on there, or is there anything I should be wary of?

 

[Talbs13]

Just install it in the 18GB Partion. No need to delete the other 2 partions.

 

[squiffy]

Since you're doing a fresh install the backup partition will now be useless unless you do a recovery. I would delete them all, create a partition large enough for OS install and applications (6GB should do) then create a partition with the rest of the space. Most likely the other partitions are FAT32 which you don't want (NTFS is better)

Before you install, download and burn all drivers for your machine onto a CD-R.