Start over on my laptop questions

[a-10tankkiller]

I have an old Dell 8100 laptop and would like to wipe the HD clean and reinstall my Win Xp. It originally came with Win Millenium, and I installed XP when the computer was given to me. Is there a best way to do this? Are there any files I definitely want backed up? I was going to just do a reformat, but it won't let me do that.
The reason for doing it is it has become unbearable to use. It takes ~5 minutes to bootup, and is real slow doing anything on it. I did virus scans and clean ups and nothing unusual came up, so I think the drive is good and just needs a new start.
thank you

[Jeffbx]

Yeah, XP will bog down after years of use, and a format & reload will bring it back to how it used to operate.

Do you have an install CD for the XP that's on there?

If so, just boot from that & do a clean install (well, back up any data files first, of course). If you boot from the XP CD, it will give you the opportunity to format your drive as part of the install.

[mechmike0034]

Here's how (http://helpdesk.its.uiowa.edu/windows/instructions/reformat.htm)...

You have to boot to the installation CD rather than booting into Windows.

Dell Support (http://support.dell.com/) will have your drivers and the latest BIOS for your machine.

[a-10tankkiller]

Thanks! I needed to reorder the bootup sequence as you pointed out and I was able to redo the computer. It boots up alot faster, but still seems slow opening apps, so maybe more going on with it. The inventory tag from my wifes work, who donated it to me when they upgraded her, shows 10/2001, so I guess age could be the problem for a few things inside. Dang, I knew I should have made my oldest take this one when my wife was upgraded again a couple years ago.
Thanks again for the help