How to reformat/repartition a710n?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

I've asked HP to send me a set of recovery discs for my a710n desktop.
When they arrive, I want to reformat the hard drive, which is currently
partitioned as follows:

partition 1:
drive: d
type: primary
size: 5943MB
offset: 32KB
file system: FAT32


partition 2:
drive: c
type: primary
size: 143GB
offset: 5943MB
file system: NTFS

Currently, the recovery files are on drive d: (partition 1). I ordered
the discs so I don't have to worry about hosing the files on the hard drive!

Here's what I want to do:

.. eliminate the recovery partition, since I'll now have discs
.. format the hard drive
.. repartition it with approximately 50GB as NTFS (to reinstall XP on)
.. use the remaining space for a Linux installation (Ubuntu will
recognize and handle the remaining free space for its installation--in
other words, I do NOT need to create another partition(s) for it)

I've just done basically the same thing with my xt4316wm laptop,
although it didn't have recovery files on another partition. It was
pretty straightforward: I formatted the drive, partitioned it using the
XP operating system disc, installed XP on the new partition, and then
installed Ubuntu on the remaining free space.

I'm just wondering if I should anticipate any problems due to the
recovery partition. I'm also not sure if the discs I'll receive will be
usable for partitioning the hard drive; with my laptop, it came with
quick recovery discs AND a separate XP operating system disc--I used the
latter for the partitioning and reinstallation.

NOTE: I have, but refuse to use, PartitionMagic as it FUBAR my laptop!