For some reason I have an unused partition, and I can't delete it. Partition Magic just won't give me the option to delete it when I click on it. I accidentally created it when I installed XP, and it's only 7 megs in size. I was to get rid of it without blanking my system out, but like I said, Partition Magic just won't let me. What do I do?

well you're already halfway to installing mandrake, and like we've said in the other thread you can sort it out in the installer.

what type of partition is it?

if its an unused partition then its possible that it really is,being that many hard drives have a type of kernel on the that makes it easier for them to be partitioned down so that they can work with old mobos that cannot use the full extent of the drive without helper software, its not easy to remove this and usually not worth your time although on very rare occasions it gives problems to Xp systems i dont know of any problems with linux and so i know only that you need dr dos to remove it ms dos wont do the trick (go figure)

Mandrake's installer will allow me to delete that small, unused partition?

please don't take this the wrong way, but i really really do seem to just be repeating myself over and over... yes. it. will. thanks.

Thats more than likely a primary partition if you installed it with your xp disk you can delete it with mandrake disk but if its before your windows C: partition you may be better off formating it to your Xp file system either ntfs or fat 32 whatever your xp is currently on,then try to use your partition magic to merge them together.