I have installed a brand new untouched HD in a system and partitioned it using Knoppix.
boot off the Knoppix CD with the cheat code:
knoppix nofstab

Then when Knoppix fully loads the GUI desktop, you can run the GUI partitioner tool: qtparted
If you are comfortable with the command line, then run the command 'cfdisk /dev/hda' to partition the HD. You may have to reboot in order for the system to recognize the partition changes. Next, format the partitions with the desired filesystem.
format a ext2fs filesystem: mke2fs -v /dev/hda1
format a ext3fs filesystem: mke2fs -vj /dev/hda2
format a swap parition:mkswap /dev/hda3