Originally posted here by Mafia
I want to get rid of all! I want to format the entire HDD...
When you run the install program, use fdisk, or disk druid to remove
all existing partitions. This makes the drive appear to the computer
as though it were new, virgin, unformatted.

You can go on from there to create new partitions and install linux
or you can abort the install and install windows instead.
If you choose to install windows at that time, the first step
is to run fdisk (the windows install program does this by default)
and create a FAT partition, otherwise DOS cannot see the drive.

Dual boot installations are a bit more complex, since you must
create multiple partitions of different types.
You must use the expert install method if you are setting up
for dual boot. If you don't need dual boot, and it's
your first installation, choose "workstation", and it will
create a default partitioning scheme without asking you
a lot of confusing questions.

Later, after you have studied all the docs, you may feel like
doing an expert install, but you have to understand partitioning
to do in intelligently.