help instaling xp

bestyman

Please help .
I have a dell laptop and have a dell windows disc. Computer running slow etc so wanted to reinstall windows.

I reinstalled but realised that my c drive had 12 gig on it with only windows on . A closer look showed preevious my docs and program files there even though I had selected new install on the windows install screen ,.

What I am trying to do is install a clean version of windows.

I m looking at the partitions on my laptop now ( this is the bit that confuses me ) , it says
unpartitioned space 78 mb
C partition 1 ( ntfs) 34993 mb ( 23543mb free)
unpartitioned space 3083mb

On drive c its as if there is 12gb there that wont go away .

Can I format this drive somehow please ( no floppy )

I did press f12 at start up and selected boot from cd rom but this didnt work either.

Thanks in advance

Bestyman

spacker_2

That space on the drive the 12gb is almost your restore files and if you delete that you wont be able to reinstall windows unless you have made an image of XP (very unlikely) or have a proper XP install disc, I would pester Dell for an XP OEM Install disc they do relent after much badgering.