The only reason I can see why it would take 2 days to reformat your computer is, he is to busy and cant get to it right away. Or he will completely wipe it clean. Which mean he will have a program that will destroy everything on your computer. When you format there is still fragments of stuff that was on your hard drive before. My husband has used this softwear and it took him a day for the softwear to stop. I format once every six months or so. I also have XP pro, it takes me about 2 hours. When I built my computer with a brand new hard drive it takes longer. But it only took 3 hours to do it. You don't really need a partition program it is easy to set it up your self if you continue to use XP, I don't really remember what 98 was like. But with XP you just follow the directions and you shouldn't have any problems making a partition. Also if it is a work computer you might have to wait for him to do it. Not all company's will let you do it your self. I might get a job with my mom at her work but I would be working in the computer department, and I would be the only one allowed to work on them. So if it does take him 2 days you just might have to wait.
Katie