I have windows xp on my dell and I need to reformat the hardrive so I can wipe out the information on it to get rid of the computer. When I put the reinstallation Cd fot xp home edition, it tells me there is a newer version of xp on the computer and wont let me CONTINUE?

ANy suggestions how to reformat or how to wipe out hardrive???

Thanks, ChrisIf you just want to wipe the hard drive clean I would suggest DBAN. This is the tool to use if you are getting rid of a computer/hard drive and want to be fairly certain the new users can't RECOVER any of your data.I went out and lownloaded DBAN...as I didn't have a floppy large enough to use, I tried copying to a CD (the ISO image)...I then downloaded CD burner XP pro as my cd burner didn't burn image copy. When trying to run it on the laptop I'm trying to clean, the laptop gave an error of needing a program like winimage.(as it couldn't read the DBAN program) I then downloaded that and the winimage keeps extracting the FILES but I cannot run the execution program...

What in the heck did I do wrong? One fellow suggested RUNNING Windows washer? and I think there was another program that might be easier ?

Thanks in advance, Follow the INSTRUCTIONS in CDBurnerXP Pro on making a CD bootable...just copying and burning an .iso won't cut it...Another question regarding same:

I reformatted with killdisk, then used the XP setip disk I made, and the laptop defaults to A:\, Dir shows files I assume are the bootup files? Anyway, what do I do next? Do I know change the setup to read a CD and put the REinstallation XP CD in? I tried that, and kept getting a NO BOOTABLE DEVICES--STRIKE F1 TO RETRY REBOOT F2 FOR SETUP UTILITY...

THANKS,