How can I format my hard drive?

[welsh_boy01]

Hi guys, I was running XP Pro on my laptop and I think it got infected with a virus and will no longer boot, so I reverted to trusty KNOPPIX and can boot in and backup all my files off the hard drive.
However when I come to try and re-install windows XP off the retail CD it hangs after copying over the required files.

I was wondering whethr this points to a problem with the hard disk, so I am looking for a way to fully format the hard drive from within KNOPPIX and try the XP CD again.

Appreciate any help

[UnderScore]

Boot off of knoppix CD. Use boot cheat code:
knoppix 2
at the console run cfdisk to repartition or delete the partitions.
in cfdisk choose 'write' to save your changes and answer with 'yes'. Quit cfdisk and then reboot via init 6.

If you don't want to do any of that command line stuff, then you can use qtparted in GUI knoppix. Run it via: sudo qtparted
I hope this helps.
James