reformating my harddisk with windows xp

[Tomt74]

reformating hard diskwith windows xp

I am currently using a dell4300s computer & got a virus a few days ago ,I got the virus out but damaged my windows software in the process & now have 3 erroor messages upon loging on.I am trying to find out how I can reformat my harddisk ,because the only windows disk I have is the system recovery tht came with my dell & its from back in 2000 every time i insert the disk & try to run it it tells me process failed because a newer version of windows is running on my pc any help I could get would be great thanks

 

[Osiris]

what errors are you getting?

 

[Tomt74]

error#1 xprt5.dll not found in system try reinstaling to correct problem I know this is an AOL error not really concerned with it but #2 is being difficult I cant acsess alot of my files due to it # two reads the procedure entry point get process image file name W could not be loaded in the dynamiclibrairy PSAI.DLL

 

[Osiris]

what you need to do is make sure your pc boots from cd rom and have the cd in the drive, then press any key to boot from cd. then it will install and there you can format and reinstall

 

[Tomt74]

I have tried this but there is another problem the recovery disc is for xp sp1 & my pc now has sp2 so the dic will not read it says theres a newer version already instaled on my pc

 

[Osiris]

It will say that if you try to install it via the desktop but it shouldnt if you boot from the cd

 

[Tomt74]

can u tell me which keys I need to hit as far as the f2 3 4 etc so I can boot from the cdrom?

 

[EricB]

use powermax in my signature to wipe your drive clean. then reinstall

 

[Osiris]

you might have to experiment...could be enter, f12, f11, delete

 

[Tomt74]

thanks for the help all u guys r thr best my pc is running fine now