Quick question....is it possible to format a HD as NTFS without going through the XP installation?

You might try a bootable partition program, I have found Acronis Disk Director Suite to work the best.

Yes. If you put in your Windows XP CD and boot from it, once it has loaded up all the drivers. Press R to access recovery console from there type:

FORMAT C: /FS:NTFS /Q

There ya go

That works to, lol.

I wonder if ERD commander can do this too?

You could also put it in a system that's already running and use the disk management tool to format it.

you can also use PartitionMagic if Windows is already installed and you just need another partition. i find it works wonders for me, especially when i mess around lot with dual/tripple/quad booting