The partitions split the drive in half with each showing 71 GB. Disk management shows another partition with 47 MB that is empty and invisible under my computer.
I have an external disc drive and the recovery disc that came with the computer so will I be safe if I accidentally delete a recovery partition? I'm not worried about any other files because I backed everything up on an external drive before I tried reformatting the first time.
Edit: There's another partition on the drive labeled PE that has FAT32 file system with 6.83 GB that is half full. It doesn't show up under my computer.
If the disk that came with the PC is a full recovery DVD, then you shouldn't have to worry about deleting everything. Windows XP shouldnt have any random partitions like Vista/7/Linux... so they were probably put there by ASUS and used for recovery, especially if they are hidden.
If I were you, I would wipe the entire drive and start over, but I dont know if that "recovery" disk that you have is a full installation, or just a supplement to the recovery partition that should be hidden. To be sure, id do a quick google search with the model number and recovery options to see if Asus or anyone else has a recovery guide you can follow.
Or just be awesome and install Ubuntu!
Hope this helps.