Reinstalling Windows XP on Dell Inspiron 8600

I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 that I bought in 2004. It came with the Windows XP Home Edition OS. I want to do a total reinstallation of the the OS and wipe out everything on it. But I don't know anything about partitons/files, FAT somethings, NTFS whatevers, network set-up, etc. I didn't know what to select on a lot of the selection windows that came up when I set about using the reinstallation disk, so I cancelled the whole reinstallation. Can someone tell me how to go about installing this OS on this computer? I probably won't ever use it for anything other than word processing with the MSWord in the MS Office Small Business Suite, the occasional spreadsheet with Excel, and printing out the work product of same.

Many thanks in advance for any direction you can give me on this. I greatly appreciate it. You have earned much merit in the eyes of the Buddha.

NepalKat

 

If I recall correctly, for Windows XP installation you can pretty much just keep clicking next without changing anything.
For FAT32 vs NTFS, you will want to pick NTFS.

 

Namaiki:

Thank you so much! The installation went very smoothly, and you were right: just keep clicking NEXT without changing anything. However, I believe I chose the FAT file set-up from the menu, not the NTFS file selection. Will that make any difference, do you think, if I make an MSWord file on the laptop and then later open that file on another computer with the current MS operating system (I believe that's "7") and a later MSWord program (both bought in 2010)?

Once again, many thanks for your help.

NepalKat

 

There won't be any difference that you will see for your MSWord files. One thing however is that you can't have any files that are lager than 4GB on a FAT32 partition.

 

You are all aces, Namaiki!

Thank you.

NepalKat