A couple of problems encountered...

[gold_finger]

I am currently dual booting between Linux Lite and Windows XP Pro SP3  - when I decide to ditch Windows and use only Linux, could you provide simple instructions on the best way to do this, please?

Getting rid of Windows is easy -- just delete the Windows partitions on the disk.  That's all.  (GParted would be the best program to use for that.)  After it's gone, you just need to run one command in the terminal to get rid of it's boot entry in the grub menu:

Code:

sudo update-grub

What you choose to do with the free space after that is another story.  There's no "best" answer for that because everyone has their own preferences for how they setup their system.  You could merge the space into your current LinuxLite partition to create one large one.  You could create a separate partition for storing data files only.  You could install other linux distros and duel/triple-boot, etc.

Best thing to do is decide how you want to use the space, then ask question here if need guidance to accomplish that whenever you're ready.