ok what you do is you take a boot disk/ system restore disk and put it into the cumputer. (the nortan antivirus CD is a boot disk) then you restart your computer. right when your comp is starting up b4 it goes into windows you have to press one of the 'F' buttons( it is either f8 or f12 i cant remeber). once you hav done that a little menu will pop up. youll have options like start up in safe mode or do a quick restore or a full reformat so on and so forth. choose your option if you have a System restort CD choose the quick restort and the computer will do everything its self. this includes installing windows and everything. if other choose full reformat. once this is completed( depending on your comp and the size of your harddrive it could take a couple of hours) your comp will restart and you put the windows CD in and start installing windows.

tip. firsthing you do when your reformat is done. install your antivirus, secondthing dl updated windows. this is before you do ANYTHING. dont even look around your computer just install and update. if you dont do this youll get visruses coming out of your ass within an hour.

P.S. if the reason your reformating is because of viruses then backup only what you need. worms are really good at hiding is unexpected places.