Firstly i'm a Linux newbie, and i mean newbie, i haven't personally used Linux before but i've seen how powerful it is and i really want to get into it....

Just one problem though, i have a Fujitsu Siemens Laptop and i'm trying to install SUSE 9.3. When i boot from CD1 the installer picks up all my hardware perfectly, except it always says that it cannot find any hard disks . I have one 80GB HDD, with three partions. one of them is 10GB and thats the one i want SUSE on.

Any ideas on how to get SUSE to pick up those partitions in the install process?

Start with http://www.linux-on-laptops.com under fujitsu for Suse9.2 intall notes on hopefully similar lappy to yours.
What else is on the HD-XP,W2000? Any rescue partitions?
You need specs for your lappy then check Suse9.3 HCL to see if your lappy hard drive controller is supported.(You may have a problem with sata controller/drives) But Suse usually has good hw detection and has been known for easy lappy install.
Check Suse 9.3 Sax or Yast program for help. Compare with Suse10 version too.

check http://www.linuxforums.org/forum Suse forum. You may find more help there too. Cheers.

Nope, other two partitions are blank. initially i left one raw, coz i though i'll format it for the linux install, but since i couldn't install i formatted all 3 drives NTFS

My XP install includes main NTFS partition and 2 FAT32 ones for sharing with linux and another for linux. If you converted all to NTFS, you will need program like PM8 or SystemRescueCd(live-cd) or somesuch with qtparted or gparted to be able to install linux again.SystemRCd or XP-pro DiskManager can delete one of them and qtparted can use space to create an Extended Partition to include needed partitions for linux.
Good luck