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Ok, heres the scenario:

 I just put my PC together back in late April. Everything was working just fine, until the power went out the other day while my comp. was on. Then the problems started. XP would not boot up, so I tried an XP repair using the original XP Pro CD, but now im getting all kinds of problems. Windows updates will not install, Internet Explorer 6.0 constantly becomes unresponsive and freezes up, and so on.

 SO, im guessing my best bet is to completely wipe out the hard drive and do a clean fresh install.

 How do i go about doing this? How do I make the HD like new?

 

I should also note, that I don't have any important information on this hard drive.

Reformat your hard drive and do a clean install (not a repair) of XP Pro.  It's almost like repair, but you need to delete the partition (C:\) and create it again.  After that, just install XP into that partition.

^ Yeah, a full format (not quick) should do it.

But if I reformat the information will still be there, correct? It will still be recoverable right?

 

 I want to completely remove any and all information from this HD permanently

 

IamHydrogen:

^ Yeah, a full format (not quick) should do it.

how exactly, step by step, would I go about doing this?

clueless noob, lol

If you really want it "like new," you can google "boot and nuke" or "active@killdisk."  My opinion is that this is unnecessary for you.  But it won't hurt anything.

Sounds like you attempted a Repair install.  It's much like that.  Set BIOS to boot from CD, insert your XP disk, and follow the prompts.  NTFS full format.

This link will help with the details.  Step 7 is where you'll delete the old, create a new.

thanks, appreciate it. :]