The following presupposes you wish to remove XP and return to a 9x Operating
System:
The XP CD is bootable and you can run format from setup. However, since you
seem
to want to format and reinstall 9x, do the following. Assuming you have a
98 or ME boot floppy (Because they include drivers for the CD-ROM Drive),
boot with that. At the prompt, type fdisk and press enter,
delete the non-dos partition, create a primary dos partition, set it active
and exit.
If it says you have no non-dos partition your system is still fat32, delete
the primary DOS Partition, create a new one, set it active and exit fdisk,
reboot the system with 9x floppy in the drive and at the prompt type format
C: and press enter. Once format is
complete, change to your CD-ROM drive and with the 98 CD in the drive,
type setup, press enter and follow the screens.
If you don't have a 9x boot disk with CD-ROM support, visit
www.bootdisk.com.
NOTE: Whether or not 98 will work with your computer is dependent upon a
number of factors including whether or not you have the drivers for your
hardware and assumes your other software is compatible as well.