Originally posted by Skel
well everything before 2000....Windows was placed on top of DOS. XP dos prompt is placed into windows so ya you need to use the CD or make a boot disk to format.
Fixed.
If you have a dell I'm sure it can with a bunch of CD's and likely one labeled "System restore". What you do is put that in the CD drive, and restart your computer. Now the first screen you see you'll need to hit the "del" key. Or it may be a different button. Look at what it says. It'll either be called "Bios" or "System information" something along those lines.
After you enter the bios look for a tab called "Startup" or something along those lines. You'll see an order of things that load on startup. You'll need to move the CD drive to the top of the list.
After that save and exit. Your computer will then attempt to start from the cd drive. You can change this back later but for the time being keep it as is. Your "System Restore" disk will likely give you an option of reformatting and reinstalling windows, or simply put "restoring" it.
Let it do the rest. After you reinstall windows, enter the bios again and move the hard drive back to the top of the list.
If that doesn't help then you're doomed and should take your computer to someone and have them do it for you.