Reformatting on an XP machine

I want to reformat the hard drive of my computer. Problem is I don't know how. I RTFM and it details only how to system recover and fix XP - not format the disk and reinstall XP. People who've reformated an XP computer, please help. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[crossposted in /g/]

>>5
Formatting will remove the references to all the files on the disk, making them inaccessible and marking the space they occupy as free, effectively erasing them. Is that better?