Just added new hardware and a hard drive that has existing data such as windows xp home (no service pack) as my master windows wont start and cant get to the command prompt have boot disk and dos 5.0 disk +driver disk, but want to clear the drive and start over how can i clear it with out access to another computer

Boot the computer from the floppy or CDROM drive with the proper disk tools. With DOS 5.0 all you can do is delete the existing partitions off the hard drive, then create a new DOS partition. Problem is, with DOS 5.0, all you can create is a single primary FAT partition with a maximum size of 2GB, and extended partitions also of a 2GB max. Better to use disk tools for the OS you intend to install. Win98 (DOS7.1) will create FAT32 partition, Win2000&Xp will be able to make NTFS partitions. There's also UNIX-type systems which have more disk partitioning and formatting options then you care to know about.

The drive has xp home no service pack and I have a disk with xp home sp3 slipstreamed in and everytime I try to boot from the cd (to repair the install) it fails, Could the extra service pack be the problem, When I try to reformat using the command prompt(Which is really tricky to get to) The format program is corrupt, should I use a program (boot and nuke) to write over it and then blank the drive then reinstall windows. I have almost every windows version on the market at my disposal as well as alot of useful software so I can do what ever it takes (Just semi-new to taking pc's apart) I just want me pc back.

Post script Thank you very much for your quick reply and expertise it is very much appreciated

Well I hooked another empty hard drive to the mother board and got the boot disk to work but now when I go to install the raid driver f6 wont work ((Back-up copy of windows on a new boot disk), Is it possable the raid drivers got corrupt during the copy) and it dosent recognize the hard drive I end with an error stating that no drive was found and that the install must end and my computer roboots. I have tried with three seperate drives, I guess its possable I have the jumpers wrong but I checked and rechecked. Could it be my mother board is trash ( the computer was my moms and she hit it with a vac and it fried) Maybe Im just stupid

When you say "F6" doesn't work, what do you mean? Do you get no response when you depress the F6 key, or does the entire F6 process not work? See my post a few days ago "Can't see SATA drive" Did you go to the mobo manufacturer and download a copy of the SATA driver for floppy?

is this a USB keyboard? does the computer have a PS/2 port for a keyboard? you might try "pressing f6 to install raid drivers" on an older PS2 keyboard, maybe without an OS there are no default USB drivers installed.