I want to re-install XP and reformat the hard drive , but I don't see anywhere that allows me to do that. How do I do it?

Go to http://www.bootdisk.com/ and create a bootdisk. Put the disk in your floppy drive and re-boot the machine. When you come to the DOS prompt type "format c:" without the quotes and press enter. After formatting put your XP installation cd in the cd rom drive and run the setup again. You may have to go into the BIOS and change boot order to check cd rom drive first.

If you have a decent enough CD rom and its bootable. All you have to do is stick the Windows XP disk (whether its upgrade or not)into the drive, make the CD-ROM bootable, let the XP CD work and it will come up with the options to install XP over again. In the instructions there should be someway to reformat and repartition the harddrive.

Jeff is correct - during install you can re-format the partition - either as FAT32 or NTFS. If you find you cannot boot from the CD - because like me your BIOS will not support booting from a CD device that is not on the primary channel, do a forum search on XP Boot Disk and you will find the location of a boot disk creation utility from Microsoft, which creates the six floppy disks needed for a floppy-based XP installation.

boot to xp cd, choose install xp, change from recommended upgrade to new install,choose to install to same partition as existing operating system,choose to install to same folder as existing op sys and to delete the existing ,and xp will format and reinstall

I just installed xp pro. I was trying to reformat and i did a new install in the same partition and folder as existing op sys and it did not format. I still have all the crap I was trying to get rid of. How can I get rid of everything and start over with just xp?

the same thing happened to me. i have windows xp pro. and i chose new install. it re-installed the os but didn't reformat C. argh!