Changing distro - how do I format Root ?
 

I want to replace my current distro with another. Should I manually reformat the Root partition before installing the new distro? When I installed the replacement distro it offered reformat root hda6 but seemed to skip that step during installation (I assume because it was the same size and format). If I should format how do I do so?

a distros installer will be able to format the partition prior to installing (providing it can recognise it's file system/detect it).

You can use cfdisk or fdisk from knoppix livecd or something, but your new distro installer really should be able to do it.

Or you can try formatting the drive from within the partition, let me know what happens :P (i doublt it will allow it for the mounted / but i'm curious :) (note: i was joking)

I just tried an install to an existing partition and it failed badly. During install, I recommend deleting the existing partitions and re-creating them.