XP Pro Set up on used Hard drive

Hi all and anyone that can help me with this.

On a quick note: had to buy a used Hard drive of ebay, and now I am installing my XP Pro.

It shows and exisiting partition:

28616 MB DISK 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]

C: Partition1 (CLEAN) [NTFS] 28616 MB < 28550 MB free>

Granted, this Hard drive is not from the manufacturer , so I dont know its history, should I delete the partion altogether and start from scratch? I am afraid I will "blow" the hard drive and not be able to re-install xp upon deletion.

Should I proceed with the Xp install, or delete the partition?

Thanks for all the help

Delete the partition, then create a new one of the maximum size allowed (should be the same as it currently is). Select the new partition to install to and format it as NTFS. XP should install fine to it. Deleting the partition will not harm the drive unless it's already defective, in which case it's better to know that sooner than later

Thanks Rich I could not remember if I could do that….better safe than sorry. Appreciate the help more than you know! Eric