how to format with swappable floppy/CD drives :(

[malleat]

hey guys
im totally confused...
for some reason my laptop keeps on switching off, and i dont know y that is!!! (it suddently goes black!!!)
its got no viruses thanks god, but i decided to format the whole laptop and start from fresh, and unfortunetely i have no idea how to format it!!!!! and it makes it even more defficult the fact ive got swappable floppy/CD drives...

so i need some1 to go through the steps of formatting the laptop and reinstalling winXP home edition... and please remember that i dont know much, so it needs to be very very clear for me to understand

ive read a thread written by Rick, but it was slightly advanced for me!

and can i also ask, there is an option to choose between FTP or NTFS (or somthing like that), which 1 is recommended for XP?

and thanks very much in advance...
Sarah

 

[RealBlackStuff]

To reformat/reinstall, all you need is the CDdrive with the XP CD in it, then boot from it.
Your BIOS must also be set to boot from CD first (probably is already, try it).
Beware though, reformatting (in NTFS for XP, by the way) will erase ALL your documents, photos, music, other programs, etc! So make backups first!