I need to reinstall Windows XP on my home PC as my brother rebooted it, but partitioned the hard drive incorrectly. (The hard drive is 80GB,  but I am only able to use 5GB. I don't really understand this in detail, but will explain the set-up as shown in 'Disk management'. The primary partition is C (system) and approx size 75GB. There is another extended partition for the logical drive, which is F and this is approx. 5GB. This is the boot partition.) The problem is that I cannot access the C drive and all my programs/documents etc are saved in F and obviously being only 5GB, there is not enough room. I have looked up lots of stuff on the internet, including this site on how to resolve this problem. Apparently, I should be able to reformat the partitions by going into disk management and right clicking, but this doesn't work. When I right click on either partition, the 'format' option is not available.

So I decided to reinstall Windows XP, as I thought my PC could do with a clean-up anyway, but this ain't working!! I bought my PC from MESH and have a recovery CD which I have used in the past without any problems. Normally, it just starts up automatically, but not anymore. I looked up info on changing the BIOS settings to boot from CD, but none of this works (pressing delete, escape etc). When the PC boots, there is an instruction to press any key to boot from CD, but this doesn't actually happen, no matter what I press. The advice BOOKLET I got from MESH, says to create a Startup floppy boot disk, if you can't boot from the CD, so I've done this. When I boot the PC using the disk, the startup screen does change and displays the following:
a\:
I am not a DOS expert, so have no idea what I should do at this stage - any ideas please?
Finally, having looked on this site, the only option seemed to be to boot from floppy, so i tried to download the floppy disks from the Microsoft site. It says you need 6 disks and will be instructed to enter them one at a time? I've not been able to do this - I maybe be doing something really basic wrong, but when I enter the first disk, it fills up and I get a dialogue box telling me that the disk is full and I need to retry or cancel. When I enter another disk, it starts from scratch again so I can't copy the download onto 6 disks.
Hope this all makes sense! I have tried to work through all the options and am completely stuck. I have a PC with 5GB usuable capacity, most of which is full with essential applications - I can't use Office, Itunes, download my PHOTOS or save anything! Would really appreciate any tips. Thanks.Did you try saving the file----->Here

Then creating the boot disk set with it?

See the below notation at the site.

If your download does not start after 30 seconds, click this link: Start download.

I'm sure I tried that as well and it wouldn't work, but will give it another go next week. Thanks.OK, we'll see you next week.  I have tried this again - both saving directly to disk and saving on the hard drive and copying to disk and it doesn't work. The instructions on the Microsoft site (see below) say that when you click on Download, you will be prompted to insert a floppy disk and this will continue as the program file is copied onto 6 disks. When I insert the first floppy, it fills up and I get a message to retry or cancel - I am not able to insert another disk and carry on copying. Am I doing something really stupid or is the downloadable file not working as it should?

Microsoft instructions:
Creating the Setup Disks
The download contains only one large program file. When you run the downloaded file, it extracts the files. You receive the following prompt: This program creates the Setup boot disks for Microsoft Windows XP. To create these disks, you need to provide 6 blank, FORMATTED, high-density disks.

Type the drive letter for the floppy disk drive. After you type the floppy disk drive letter, you see following prompt:
Insert one disk into drive :. This disk will become the Windows XP Setup Boot Disk. Press any key when you are ready. When you press a key, the downloaded file starts extracting and copying the files. Continue inserting blank disks as you are prompted until all six disks are created.Use 6 new floppies and insert them into the A: drive and right clik it to format each one before attempting this...hopefully this should work.Are you using a wireless keyboard?  You may need to use a wired keyboard for Boot Up options.  My wireless KB won't do anything until Win XP boots. 

You might try reformatting your drive on another computer if available. I've been using new disks and tried right-clicking and formatting them! I've spent hours trying everything more than once, cos i just don't get why it won't work! Relieved to hear it maybe the wireless keyboard. This did cross my mind when I first tried to reboot from the CD and I couldn't access the BIOS options, but I dismissed it as a 'silly' thought and so did my brother - I won't repeat what he said to me. I will see if I can get hold of a wired keyboard and try again. Thanks for all your suggestions.I finally managed to beg/borrow a wired keyboard and it worked! Plugged in the keyboard, PUT in my recovery CD and it rebooted automatically - a new clean installation of Windows XP in half an hour!
Thanks for your help. This is the first time I've used this forum and am very impressed, as I was totally stuck, so will definitely be back if I have any future problems. Im afraid I won't be of much help to anyone else!Glad to hear you are all fixed up