new Dual startup disk woes

[Melissa Crowe]

Hi All,
I just got my new Dual 1gig G4, and I want to reformat the drive, but 
lo and behold, in the collection of CDs that came with the computer, 
there does not seem to be a single one to use as a startup disk in 
order to get this done! I am losing it. In fact, I guess I don't even 
know how to reformat a disk in OS X. Do I have to startup from my OS 
9 disk to do this? How annoying.
Help!
Melisssa