Some users get in a habit of reformatting and reinstalling every so often...It's just my opinion, but with Windows XP installed, unless you are experiencing some major problems, there is really no reason to reformat and reinstall. You can do sufficient clean ups on Windows XP that it's not necessary to reformat and reinstall..
As an example, I've oversee about 25 machines in an office situation(Windows XP's and 2000) that have NEVER been reformatted. The "newest" machine is 1 year old and some are going on five or six years old. They are maintained regularly and they work fine. My daughter's Windows 98 is about 7 years old and I've only formatted and reinstalled ONCE and that was shortly after I bought it. It runs fine too. My Windows XP HOME machine is a little over one year old and it also has never been formatted...It runs great.
In addition, Windows XP requires "activation" each time you install it. Although that's not a major deal, it's just one more time consuming step that you need to go through:
So, after reading all of that, then I recommend doing a clean install of Windows XP...You'll need both the XP CD and the Windows 98 CD. It's better if you don't install Windows 98 first, then upgrade. You can place the Windows XP in the CD-Rom, restart the computer and install it. Make sure that the BIOS is set to boot from the CD-Rom before the hard drive. At some point during the installation, you'll be asked to place the Win98 CD in the drive, just to show that you've got it...then XP will install.
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxphome/installxpcdoldhdd/index.htm
Hope this helps.
Grif
Okay, currently I have Win XP. I upgraded from ME about 2 years ago after doing a reformat. My friend and her computer nerd (no offense) sister helped me through it. Then my boyfriend did it about 6 months ago. They used a boot disk (too me its just a red floppy), typed a few commands or whatever when it told them too, and then installed Win 98 so they could install XP. Now I have no idea exactly what they typed in, and when they installed the OS'....I need help!

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