Originally I tried booting it from the XP CD, however I get a message saying that the CD is not bootable. But I know it is because I try it in my desktop and it works.
So then i followed the advice above and downloaded a windows 98 boot disk (floppy) which works and I then run fdisk fromit and delete the partition and then create a new one and it appears then to have one disk section that is NTFS file system.
Then if I restart and boot from the floppy again to get a command prompt and try using the "format c:" command, it says that "format not supported on drive C:" and "Format terminated" and takes me back to the command prompt.
I can't format from within windows because obviously windows is then running and it says the drive is in use so won't let me do that.
As mentioned before, I also have the recovery disks from the manufacturer that should restore the computer to its factory state. However, this will not boot automatically from the CD drive and when I try to run anything from the disc through windows, i get an error regarding "16-bit MS DOS Subsystem" and it tells me that a certain file (appears to be different every time) is unavailable and therefore it can't run.
Man, i never knew it was so hard to delete all your info from the hard drive!
All these people telling you to be careful because you might lose everything. That's what i'm trying to do!