help needed to erase hard drive and everything on it including current windows xp

[LondonCabbie]

I seem to have an error on my laptop and need to delete everything from my hard drive including the windows xp.
I can then reload my genuine copy of windows and be sure that the laptop is in good working order before the new buyer get his or her hands on it.

Any help would be appreciated, im not a complete dummy with pc's but would need simple instructions in what i have to do to get the result i am after.

[BMR777]

You could use Killdisk (http://killdisk.com/) to erace the hard drive. You can also delete and reformat the partitions on the drive during the reinstall of XP.

From the partitions section of the Windows Install (Where it asks you to pick a partition) delete all the partitions and then create a new one and format it.

Hope it helps
BMR777

[tummypony86]

Download Window Washer Trial version and click on Wash Utilities and create a erase boot disk.

http://www.webroot.com/consumer/downloads/

[0S1R1S]

Just put in your Windows CDROM and let it do its magic like BMR said. No other software is needed.

[LondonCabbie]

Ok as i said before im not too competant on pc's.....when i place xp in to laptop it starts to load but i cant partition hard drive cz it says im using some install files onit so it dont allow me to delete anything...this is what i have managed to do on my desk top pc but am findiong this a little harder to do....

When the set up file is loading it appears with erors and i think this is caused by a conflict in the xp program already installed and the new one im trying to over write it with. So my thinking was if i could somehow delete the whole hard drive i could load the new xp version with no problems.

although xp asks where i want to place new version there are no alternatives other than drive c where the other copy is installed.

Hope this makes some sense and that someone will be able to assist me in my project.

Many thanks to all that replied already