Newbie's Guide to The Disk Management snap-in and Common Disk Management Tasks
Create new disk partition(s) -- Delete the existing partition(s) Using the Windows interface.
To initialize new disks... Open Computer Management (Local)... In the console tree, click Disk Management.
Administrative Tools -> Computer Management (compmgmt.msc) -> Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc)
Right-click the disk you want to initialize, and then click Initialize Disk.
In the Initialize Disk dialog box, select the disk(s) to initialize.
The disk is initialized as a basic disk.
Notes-- You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings might also prevent you from completing this procedure.
New disks appear as Not Initialized. Before you can use a disk, you must first initialize it. If you start Disk Management after adding a disk, the Initialize Disk Wizard appears so you can initialize the disk.
Create new disk partition(s)
Delete the existing partition(s)
Optionally, exclude the file indexing on the newly created partition before using it to store files.
Also, go to Computer Management -> Services and Applications -> Indexing Service -> System -> Directories,
Double-click a drive or a directory, Click the Yes option button to include the directory in the catalog, or click No to exclude it.
Note-- To disable and stop Windows Indexing Service... In the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and uncheck Indexing Service.
More info...
Disk storage type : Basic storage
You can divide a basic disk into primary and extended partitions. Partitions function as physically separate storage units. This allows you to separate different types of information, such as user data on one partition and applications on another. A basic disk can contain up to four primary partitions, or up to three primary partitions and one extended partition, for a maximum of four partitions. Only one partition can be an extended partition
Partition type : Extended Partition
An extended partition is created from free space. There can be only one extended partition on a hard disk, so it is important to include all remaining free space in the extended partition. Unlike primary partitions, you do not format extended partitions or assign drive letters to them. You divide extended partitions into segments. Each segment is a logical drive. You assign a drive letter to each logical drive and format it with a file system.
Differences between a Quick format and a regular format.
When you choose to run a regular format on a volume (partition), files are removed from the volume that you are formatting and the hard disk is scanned for bad sectors. The scan for bad sectors is responsible for the majority of the time that it takes to format a volume.
If you choose the Quick format option, format removes files from the partition, but does not scan the disk for bad sectors. Only use this option if your hard disk has been previously formatted and you are sure that your hard disk is not damaged.
How To Use Computer Management in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308423/EN-US/