How to format a computer and reset your computer back to thedefault settings:

(also known as reformatting, wiping or restoring your computer to
factory defaults) The following steps will delete all of the
information off of your computer’s hard drive. Please make sure
that you have backed up all your data, programs, address book,
data, calendars, etc, etc. It will ALL be gone after these formatting
steps
***********WARNING************
What is the benefit to formatting my computer? How to format
the computer’s hard drive:


The easiest way to format your computer is by locating your
operating system CD. Look for a CD or DVD that specifically says
“Operating System” or “System Restore”. Insert the installation disc
into your CD or DVD drive.
Restart your computer.
When your computer is restarting, you will be prompted to “Press
any key to boot from CD”. Simply press any button on your
keyboard when you see this message. If you do not see this
message when you restart your computer, you may need to reset
your boot disk sequence. *
*To reset the boot sequence, go into BIOS mode. To do this, restart
your computer and while restarting press the F1, F2, F10, or maybe
the delete key (your computer screen will say “To enter setup press
xxx”. You only have a few seconds to press the correct key, so if
you miss it you will need to restart your computer and try again.
Once you have successfully entered the BIOS mode, look for your
boot sequence options. Set the CD ROM drive to be the 1 st in the
boot sequence. Save your changes and exit.
The CD will load a blue screen, then after a few minutes will ask you
to press Enter to set up Windows.
You will then be prompted to select where to install Windows. There
will be a box on the lower half of your screen that will either show
“Unpartitioned space xxxMB” or will have “Partitioned space
xxxMB”. Highlight which partition you wish to format (typically it
will be the unpartitioned space or the space with the largest partition
by most megabytes). Hit Enter after selecting the space to partition.
The next step is to choose which file system to format the drive
with. The NTFS option will be the fastest option. For most formatting
purposes, choose the option that ends in “Quick”. Press Enter when
done.
The computer will then begin the formatting process. This process
may take a while depending on the size of the hard drive you are
formatting and the speed of hard drive.
As soon as the drive has been formatted, the operating system files
will be copied to the hard drive and the operating system will start
installing.