DAMN! I tabed to submit and the hampster’s nailed me.
Ok, when we turn the power on for the first time, should we hit F2 and mess with the Boot sequences, or should we just let the machine fire up and let the install disc tell us what to do?
And when it comes to [partitioning…do we do FAT32 or NTFS? Or both?
Sorry so ignorant about these things…but you guys are a lot of help and we all love the SDMB! 
I’m not sure you’re following us. Partitioning doesn’t have a “format” aside from Windows vs. non-Windows or Linux vs. non-Linux, etc. You create the partitions first (which actually creates the drive and drive letter), and then you format the drive as NTFS or FAT32. I guess that a good rule would be to use FAT32if you’re going to install Windows Me first and want Me to be able to access the drive on which XP will be later installed. If you don’t care about that or won’t have any 9x-based OS installed, go with NTFS. And after installing the drive, do press F2. You want o make sure that the new hard drive is recognized by the BIOS (otherwise, XP setup won’t see a drive to install to) and also to check that CD-ROM is included in the boot order - before “hard drive”, or “ATA hard drive” or however Dell has it listed in the BIOS. Once you check this, exit from the BIOS (if you changed anything it will reboot, if not it will continue booting, IIRC). You should hear the CD-ROM drive spin up and see a message that says “Press any key to boot from the CD”. Do that, and setup will start.