Re-installing XP

[arncap]

I have a Panasonic Let's Note Japanese OS laptop. Very recently, I tried installng Windows XP ENGLISH in it. For some reason, I can't seem to format the HD. I want to completely format the HD and start from scratch. However, each time I try using my XP English disk, the HD keeps all of my old data and it is nearly full. I tried formatting the HD but it won't let me. Each time I try by going to My Computer then right clicking the mouse on the C drive and clicking on format and start, it says the following: "Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk utilities or other programs that are using this drive, and make sure that no windows is displaying the contents of the drive. Then try formatting again."

I have no idea what to do. I simply want to format my disk and start fresh with XP in English. Any suggestions?

I had once previouslychanged the OS from Japanese to English and used it that way for a few months. However, I re-installed the Japanese XP a few months ago. So, that tells me that the English version should work.

 

[Sommer]

You cannot format a drive that you're accessing. You'll need to insert you Windows XP CD and boot it (F12, on most machines, during BIOS start-up)

When the CD boots hit F8 and it's going to ask if you want a recovery install hit ESC (declining that, then you'll get the option to do a fresh install). Move the selector (using arrow keys) to your partition where Windows is currently. Hit the 'D' key. This will delete the partition. Hit 'L' to confirm. Now you'll have unpartitioned space, highlight that and hit the 'C' key and use the amount of space you want and hit 'enter'. Select that drive to format to NTFS and install Windows.

If anything else is confusing, follow-up on here.