reinstalling windows xp

I am not that knowledgeable but I follow instructions well. I am trying to reinstall Windows XP. I also have too much junk which I want to eliminate. When I put my windows disc in to reinstall I receive the following error message that doesn't let me continue, "Unable to reinstall you have a newer version on your PC" How can I get past this, I would like to start fresh again. Thank you for your help.

Wadda

 

Are you able to boot with the CD in the drive? If you do so, you should be able to use setup to add/modify/delete partitions on your system, and format your current system partition.

Of course, you would have to configure BIOS to boot from CD rom.

 

I can configure the bios to boot from cd. Do I do that and continue?

 

Yes, if you configure your machine to do that, it should run setup from your CD. From there, it should be a breeze to perform a clean installation of Windows.