so i wanted a clean installation of windows xp, and i inserted the cd then i deleted the existing partitions and created one partition and started the installation (after formatting ntfs files) but the something went wrong during the installation of windows xp (COMPUTER turned off ) and i had to start all over again , but there is only an 8 mb partition and the other hdd space is not displayed (in blue and white screen) Hi Matt,

This has happened to me a few times now ... hene I opted to get a UPS.  Anywho ... the only 2 things I EVER do (easiest, as far as I am concerned) is as follows:

A - Back in the day I would simply slave that DRIVE to another machine and the format it from within the Operating System (OS)
B - These days I just connect it via USB to another machine and then format it from within Windows

Hope you come right.

EssieAlso, the OP can boot the PC with a CD that has a "Live Linux" on it. He can USE GParted to examine the hard drive.
This link has a general coverage of GParted.
http://rvarchivo.blogspot.com/2012/10/gparted-wikipedia-free-encyclopedia.html

A bootable USB of GParted is FOUND on the link below.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/liveusb.php