You can format the harddrive with a number of tools. One easy way is to
boot to a Win98 boot floppy, use fdisk to create your partitions, and then
use format to wipe the disk. You should have a floppy laying around,
otherwise one of your friends will. Also, I think you can probably download
one, but I'm not sure how legal that is, so you're on your own there.
By definition, you will lose all the information on the harddrive during a
format.
If you are interested in re-installing your operating system without
formatting your drive, then there are various ways to do that. Depending on
your problem, you might start with trying to fix the problem first, then try
booting to a recovery console to see if you can fix the problem, then try a
repair installation. All of these methods should preserve any user files
that you may have on the harddrive. If your system is really toast, or if
you just prefer a clean install, then try to get your user files off to a
different partition, network drive, CDR, etc...
You probably want to make sure you're saving you email, favorites, etc... as
well.
--
HTH,
=d=
Dana Brash
MCSE, MCDBA, MCSA
(e-mail address removed)
