C Drive Format

If you are trying to format the boot drive (C drive) from within XP, you can't.

Instead of going to all the trouble to reinstall XP, why not just repair winsock? See link below.

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=257

Dalton

if u still wanna re-format ur drive you and insert the win98 boot disk and fdisk the drive or you can wdclear it, you can download it from http://www.jrwhipple.com/sup_startover.html
its on the left side bar...
and remember to back up ur drivers or download'em
so u can reinstall them.
you can also look for your drivers at
http://www.driverguide.com/

If you are dead set on reformating the C: drive, get the XP install disk, boot to it, remove the partition that is the c: drive and then reinstall the system from scratch. if that does not work, get Dereks Boot and Nuke (DBAN) (free) build the DBAN floppy, set you system to boot from floppy and then follow the DBAN instructions. go back to bios, set it to boot from HD first, CD second, remove the DBAN disk and insert the XP install disk.
warning, after using DBAN even the FBI will have a hard time recovering something off the disk.

Please rate my answer

Before reformatting reinstall,you should extract the winsock file from disk
You have NTFS file system that needs to be deleted,this can be done using a Windows98 startup disk,then use fdisk to wipe the drive or use the recovery console to repair the installation
How to Partition a Master Hard Disk
To partition a master hard disk, run the fdisk command: 1. Insert the Startup disk in the floppy disk drive, restart your computer, and then use one of the following methods, depending on your operating system. For a Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, or Windows Me Startup disk:

a. When the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed, select the Start computer without CD-ROM support menu option, and then press ENTER.
b. At a command prompt, type fdisk, and then press ENTER.
c. View step 2.
For a Windows 95 Startup disk:

a. At a command prompt, type fdisk, and then press ENTER.
b. View step 2.

2. If your hard disk is larger than 512 MB, you receive the following message:
Your computer has a disk larger than 512 MB. This version of Windows includes improved support for large disks, resulting in more efficient use of disk space on large drives, and allowing disks over 2 GB to be formatted as a single drive.

IMPORTANT: If you enable large disk support and create any new drives on this disk, you will not be able to access the new drive(s) using other operating systems, including some versions of Windows 95 and Windows NT, as well as earlier versions of Windows and MS-DOS. In addition, disk utilities that were not designated explicitly for the FAT32 file system will not be able to work with this disk. If you need to access this disk with other operating systems or older disk utilities, do not enable large drive support.

Ok maybe this will help... Go to your Prompt and type in C: format it will ask you the volume name that is usually called HARD DISK unless you name your Drive something different and when I say drive I mean (C) drive ex
cd:/ format c:
type in volume name
HARD DISK hit enter
try this hope it helps

Microsoft released a windows sockets update a few years back. (the win98 era I think)It was intended for just that type of problem. Do a search and see if it isn't still around. It's in the form of an executable and was very good at fixing winsock problems. Make sure it's compatible with your OS though first. Might want to try it before you format an otherwise perfectly good system.
K