Windows XP PC recovery question?

When you run the recovery discs you get a few choices. What is the difference between the one that says to recover back to factory settings vs. formatting pc(all data will be lost). I need to dump all of the info from it and just have my operating system. I'm trying to sell it. I guess what I'm asking is, if I format and dump everything, will I still be able to have all of my windows programs like WORD and EXCEL. Also, I want to leave the antivirus on it too. Any info on this will help. Keep in mind, I want to dump all personal info to sell, so I do not want to do a system restore.

Windows XP PC recovery question?panda

do a complete format, I have never had success with the fix it,, but also it wont clean up your disk, do the complete format,

Windows XP PC recovery question?suzuki

run the format to remove everything first then run the factory settings that way its safer as even when you delete stuff on you computer, its not actually deleted its just flagged to be written over by other information. Therefore when you do a format it "clears" all the info. I am guessing that when the factory settings is chosen it does a format again before installing the factory settings. If you are really sensitive about your personal information look for this program called Eraser because it has an option to create a Nuke disk which completely runs a format about three times on your hard disk
I can give you a link that deals with hard drive problems.