reformatting c drive in win xp

can anyone tell me how to completely wipe c drive clean by re-formatting it in xp, i knew how to do it with the older versions of windows but since xp is not dos based i don't know how

 

Think if you download Partition Magic, you can do it through that.
Or you can just right click the drive and click format !!!

 

Go to your bios and make your first boot cd-rom.

take original XP in cd-rom press space bar to make the cd boot when you see
the ligne tell you to press a key.

and fallows instruction you will have the choice for FAT32 and NTSF.

hope this help....

 

Yes you would go about it that way with a fresh install of windows.
However, I wasn't entirely sure, where you reinstalling windows or just formatting a partition or the whole drive? If you're formatting the whole drive, windows is long gone!

 

A partition where the Windows Operating System is installed on can not be formatted from within Windows. You stated C Drive if that is the only drive that what I stated is true however if XP was installed on to another partition formatting the C drive would be feasible though NOT a good idea since XP's boot files would reside on the Primary Partition (which is referred as 'System Partition'), upon formatting the C, Windows XP installed on another partition on the same HD would no longer be bootable (missing NTLoader, NTdetect and Boot.ini files, etc.)

You would typically configure your BIOS so the first Boot Device is set to CD-ROM drive as Clark Kent mentioned so the system upon boot would prompt the user to 'Press Any Key to boot from CD-ROM' the user would have to press a key so the system would scan the CD-ROM drive and if a bootable OS exists, it runs the setup process.
User will get prompted by a 'Repair' option should there be an existing installation of XP on that partition already, you would ignore this and continue with the installation like you were doing a fresh installation. When the screen where it shows you the existing partition/s and from this screen you take whatever action you want. Tip: if any OS was previously installed on the Drive/Partition always do a 'Full format' and NOT a 'Quick format'.
Another method would be to use a 3rd-party partition utility such a program would be Partition Manager (version 8 needed for XP) which McAdam suggested.