Follow these simple steps to correctly do a clean install of Microsoft XP
 

Warning:  This process will delete ALL data on your hard drive !!!
 

1.    Go into to your CMOS "Advanced Settings" by pressing the Del or F1 key as it appears on
        your screen during the starting up of your computer, before it starts your operating system.

2.   Change the "boot up sequence" to the following order:  Floppy, CD-ROM, Hard Drive

3.   Save the new CMOS settings and exit.

4.    ReBoot your computer AFTER you inserted a Windows 98 start up disk into the floppy drive

5.   After the computer restarts an  A:\  prompt should appear

6.    Type FDISK then press enter. When the menu appears choose #4 to see the list of partitions

7.   Delete ALL partitions including the Primary and any NON-DOS partitions.

8.   When you are told to press ESC to reboot  leave the disk in the floppy drive and reboot.

9.   Repeat steps #5 and #6 . It should say "no partitions defined"
      You now have a clean and Unformatted hard drive

10.  Leave FDISK and you should have an  A:\  prompt on the screen.

11.   REMOVE the disk from the floppy drive and insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive.

12.   REBOOT by pressing CTRL+ALT then DEL and the Windows XP install process should begin.