It’s quite easy if you are sure that there’s no problem with your laptop hardware. I guess it would be same for all laptops to reinstall a new system. However, laptop has a hidden partition, or directly hide drive C, the purpose of doing this is to protect system. It’s definitely OK if you want to change a system you like. Combined with my own experience, I have few suggestions for you, maybe you can use for reference.
 The first: clear up BIOS (mean to clean up system protection for motherboard)
 The second: erase hard disk with the eraser in mhdd. (Mean to clean up the hidden partition, hidden backup and system partition completely on hard disk).
 The third: after erasing, format the partition with DM. (Partition by your own decision).
 The fourth: install XP of GHOST version. (Mean to install system quickly). Notice: you should choose GHOST system with full drivers; otherwise, some drive might be absent.
I guess with the method above, any issued laptop could change a new system leisurely.
 Besides: if your hard disk is of SATA, then you could use GHOST to shield IDE channel; otherwise, you could not find the hard disk. Or you could enter BIOS and shield IDE channel. Here’s the concrete method:
 The first method: shield with GHOST of version 8.3 above. Execute GHOST command in DOS, and add noide verify code. Supposing the GHOST is under the root directory on drive D, then the command format is: D: GHOST.EXE—NODE and press Enter.
 The second method: enter BIOS setup, Interneted  peripherals—IDE Function Setup—Disable the Onchip IDE channel 0 or Onchip IDE channel 1, save and exit.
  The two methods above could all solve the situation that hard disk could not be found when GHOST. According to your situation, just choose one of them.