Correct syntax to format a 160GB drive in a Gateway laptop.

What is the correct fdisk command to format a 160GB drive on a Gateway laptop. I ran Acronis disk cleaner on the laptop to earse the current Vista OS to install XP Pro. Using the Gateway startup Vista CD or a XP Pro CD the CDs to do not recognize the hard drive. Only Acronis disk cleaner sees the 160GB drive.
I just wanted to format the drive using Knoppix then hopefully the XP Pro CD would see the drive at install. Will this work, format first with Knoppix which will allow XP to see the drive? If so what is the correct syntax?


Thanks for your help in advance

Ripcord1

That makes no sense to me. Not sure why your Xp install doesn't see the disk, but you shouldn't try to put a NTFS partition out there with Knoppix, and I don't think that you would want to put a Linux format partition out there (although Microsoft will certainly try to delete any Linux partition they fine). Sounds more like your MBR has been mucked up by the thing that you ran, you might want to try to run gpart or testdisk and see if one of them can't repair the MBR for you.