[snowmonkey]

You don't need third party software to format the drive....Windows XP Installation gives you a chance to format the drive to NTFS during installation and that is good enough as far as formatting goes.

In regards to missing file or can't copy a file during install......there are few scenarios

-If you are installing via a copied CD...make sure it's written with low speed.
-Make sure you CD is not scratched or dirty.
-small amount or physical memory sometimes could cause this error.

Hope this helps.

Cheers