FDISK a hard drive in WIN-XP

I reloaded WIN-XP on my laptop with a friends copy. (I had a key already from an earlier purchase.) and it worked fine. But over time it has messed up and I need to reload XP. I get an error message that the version I am trying to load is older than the version now on there. How do I fdisk the drive so that I can reload the o/s as if it were the first time? I am using xp for the new install too. Thanks,
TR:confused

 

Basic steps:

1. Boot to the XP disk

2. Choose the 'Install a fresh copy' option

3. Delete the partition on which the current Windows is installed

4. Create and format the unpartitioned space

5. Install Windows

If you've got any questions about any of those steps, let us know.

 

It would probably be less hassle to boot to the disk from which you wish to install.

 

I tried that and I was not able to do so. Finally I decided to connect the drive directly to my main PC through an adapter cable and formatted it so I could reinstall the propper OS. Now I get the error message "Boot Mgr. is missing. Does this mean that it's toast?

 

It sounds like you are not booting to the XP CD. Try putting the XP CD in the drawer and restart the computer and hit F12 during the splash screen. Does it give you the option to boot from CD/DVD?