My primary (only) hard drive cannot be formatted. It only tells me "this volume is in use by another program" etc etc. However, what I am interested in is any way to bypass this that doesn't involve using floppy disks or a windows installation CD. I am not in any way interested in a fresh install of Xp, I want to wipe my hard disk clean. Please reply as speedily as possible.

Hey hmmm!
Welcome to PC Helpforum!

You cannot format your harddisk while using it at the same time.

If possible, you can add it to another PC, and reformat it that way.
Otherwise, create a MS-DOS floppy, and execute FDISK from it.

Blue

Yes, I know the hard disk cannot be in use. However, what I am looking for is something that does NOT involve floppy disks, though CDs are an option.

Oke, do you have a speedy internet connection?

You can download the Ultimate Boot CD then:
Ultimate Boot CD - Overview

And use that it contains several tools for harddisk formatting.

Perhaps you can instead find something on this website:
Bootdisk.Com

Bluefish

Thank You very much. I have however decided to use only one component of the ultimate boot cd, Active@Kill Disk. Hopefully this works. Again, thank you most sincerely for your assistance. It is appreciated.

Oke please let us know if this brings the outcome to your problem.