Thread: Can't just reformat the hard drive any more?

I'm having system problem on two computers, as well as I just want to reformat and reinstall XP on the desktop. I get the error that the version I have on disc is older than the installed system, so I can't move forward with the set up process. Okay, so I'd like to just reformat the drive as well as reinstall XP. Is there a simple way to do it? I've looked at the slipstreaming methods and I don't know if I'm up to that job, my skills are becoming vintage. Could I just drag the drive out, set up it as a slave in one more PC and reformat that way? Any other ideas? Very frustrated in wasting an evening that I had hoped to just reformat/reinstall as well as able to do nothing. I don't think that I can even do a fix set up due to the error. I uninstalled SP3, but that had no effect on the error message. Thanks for any help.