How do I delete a Stubborn Drive Parition?

Hello,

I was forced to wipe & restall WinXP OS. Unfortunately, I ended up with two drives and two WinXP systems, which booted.

DRIVE D: System
DRIVE C: Another sysem.

I deleted system from C, & reparitioned & reformatted. but of course system became confused on reboot. I was able to consistently boot from DRIVE D unless DRIVE C was also conntected. In other words, my OS deletion on DRIVE C, also affected DRIVE D. WinXP OS was confused; not a suprise in this situation. I got smart and repaired DRIVE D, via the repair console in WinXP--I replaced the MBR. Sounds OK, right?

Well, I still have DRIVE C, and I am now unable to remove the parition; it still thinks the system is on the drive. How Can I fix this issue? I can force the parition deletion, but prior to this it gives the error: Unable to delete system; drive may be configured as a system, boot, pagefile, or crashdmp.

How can I ever get the "system" remnants off this drive?

Thx.

Scott

One more thing:

As I go to reinstall WinXP, it wans to ensure Drive C is partitioned:

DRIVE D: < ---Parition & Install system Here
DRIVE C: <----Leave Unpartitioned

Windows XP will not let me proceed with the install, unless I parition DRIVE D. However, I'd rather leave DRIVE D alone.

As I attempt install on DRIVE C, I am prompted with:
To install Windows XP on the parition you selected, Setup Must write some startup files to the following disk: 152626 MB Disk 0 at ID 0 on atapi [MBR]

Apparently it still detects the MBR. Is it safe to allow this, or should I remove this DRIVE C, and install without it.

Thx.

Scott

Try this fix which was posted by Big Booger some time ago.

http://www.techzonez.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3975

After above fix, you should be able to reinstall xp on c:.