Can’t figure out existing XP partitions for a non destructive reinstall

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I should be at Screen Seven of Fred Langa’s XP’s No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option.

Instead, I see:

Windows XP Professional Setup
==============================

The following list shows the existing partitions and
unpartitioned space on this computer.

Use the UP and DOWN ARROW keys to an item in the list.

* To set up Windows XP on the selected item, press ENTER.
* To create a partition in the unpartitioned space, press C.
* To delete the selected partition, press D.
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 76294 MB Disk Ø at Id Ø on bus Ø on atapi [MBR] │
│ │
│ I: Partition1 [FAT] 47 MB │
│ C: Partition2 [NTFS] 76238 MB │
│ Unpartitioned space 8 MB │
│ │
│ Unknown Disk │
│ │
│ │
│ Unknown Disk │
│ │
│ │
│ Unknown Disk │
│ │

I’ve used this method several times before on my and my children’s PCs and the 200 PCs at my previous work assignment, but this time it’s my work PC and it’s different. There’s no repair option and I don’t know what I’ll screw up if I start to remove partitions without understanding why they are there. I have not seen such a partition on any of the other machines here. I suspect it is something my predecessor at this assignment did for his own (non-official) reasons.

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Slightly educated GUESS from having seen something similar recently – please don’t commit to changes if things don’t look right!
Looks like you’re not presented with repair as an option YET because multiple partitions and some free space are on the drive.
I’m thinking that partition I: is a factory restore or recovery type partition which your predecessor may have unhidden and given a drive letter to in order to save elsewhere or something.
Possibly by using the arrow keys to move the cursor to the C: partition to select it, then hitting Enter, you would be presented with the option to repair once the WinXP is chosen to work with.
Typically that I: partition is hidden and has no drive letter assigned, in order to make it difficult for a user to eliminate the restore to factory option.

Please proceed cautiously, as I said I have seen this situation before BUT there’s no guarantee the situation is identical.

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