partition hard drive

Using a third party software suchas Power Quest Partition Magic7 or System Commander would be the logical way to partition the hard drive

You can use a dWindows 98 start up disk and partition the drive using fdisk
The option give to enable largedisk support answer (Y) and the next option to use the maximum partttion for DOS answer (N) and then you cant set the partition size manually by selecting 70%,return to fdisk and set the second partition and then when you reboot for changes to take effect you will have to format each partition.

If you all-ready have XP installed, and want to change the drive partitioning, then follow soulriders advice.

Unless you want to start over again, you need to use a 3rd party utility to re-partition the hard drive.

If you have a new drive, andgetting ready to install XP, you have the option during setup to define the primary partition.
Then, after you have XP installed, you can setup the extended partition.

If you have a new drive, or nothing installed on the drive, you might want to get the model number of the disk drive and search the web site of the manufacturer. For example, Maxtor has a disk utility program that will partition your drive, fdisk and format for you. Just have a look and see what the manufacturers site has to offer.

Thank you for the info, but I found Partition Magic and it did it.