Sorry for the delay in reply, I was out actually, I will try best to answer your question.
Laptop Make: Dell Inspiron
Yes in fact I managed to format the drive. But when XP files were being copied the laptop just hung up, then I got an error that some files could not be read from the CD. I believe the CD is OK since I had used it a\a few days before.
1. The BIOS Screen indicates that the CD Drive was detected.
2. I also get the 'Press any key to boot from CD Drive...' option.
3. The CD drive starts the installation process and actually copies some files but it hangs up after some time.
No I could not do this as (a) I do not have a Floppy drive for the laptop, (b) There is no port or cable connection to connect a floppy drive.
I have made a bootable USB stick, with linux OS in it,...selected boot from USB diskette option, but even this did not work , the laptop could not even detect the stick..
thanks
arunb