When you format a floppy (Open My Computer, right click on the floppy,
choose format), there is an option to make a bootable diskette.
*However*, if your hard disk is formatted NTFS, that bootable diskette will
be almost useless. It will not allow you to access anything on an
NTFS-formatted hard disk.
The XP CD is bootable, and you can, using the recovery console, copy files
off an NTFS-formatted hard disk if you have to.