I freaking hate Windows XP! Help me format, please.

[Woz]

Okay, I, at times, have been known to suffer from anger issues. Since breaking my hand in early June this year, I've been trying slightly more than usual to restrain my frustration and keep as calm as possible.

That goal is not made any easier to reach by the fact that I wish to pack my computer up nice and neatly in its box, carefully place it in the boot of my car and drive it to my work, placing it gently on the depot floor and then have a 40 foot shipping container dropped on it from above.

To put it nicely, the freakin' thing gives me a bad case of what can only be referred to as the Gar'n Gets! Because I've reached the point where the sum can gar'n get f****d. It plays up to no end, won't do what it's told, has a mind of it's own and all it does is cause me and anyone who goes near it constant grief. I'm almost certain it's built by Holden.

I wish to reformat the bloody thing, but it has that stupid Windows XP on it which I hate and from what I've read online, I need the XP cd to format it. However the reason it has XP on it is because that's what it came back to me with last time it went to the shop to be fixed. So I don't, nor have I ever, had a copy of the Windows XP installation disk.

My question is this:

Is there a way to format my computer and install Windows '98 without using the XP cd, or is there anyone near Bayswater that can lend me a copy of the cd so that I can be done with this monstrosity once and for all?