I have all sorts of problem with my desktop, so I'm considering a reinstall. My concern is if I will lose any data saved in drive D and E.

NOPE! you will only be reformatting your "C" drive assuming that is where Windows is

You won't lose any data on drives D and E unless you delete or format those partitions.

Windows XP Installation Guide

Don't forget to have all of your various drivers at hand for your re-install

You want to go save - ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS make a backup first of your desktop / laptop before you format it.

If you use Microsoft Outlook (for example), data is stored on C: so then after the format of C: your e-mail is gone ..forever..

Good luck!

Cloggie

 On your drive C,  under Documents and Settings/(User)/Application Data there will be some data that is saved by various programs.  It would be worthwhile to back this data up before formatting drive C.

Some advice for people who dont know much about computers.

Buy an external HDD, they are not expensive, download all your important things.

Then re install a new copy of windows.

The HDD is very very useful because sometimes hard drives fail and having a backup can save yourself a lot of headaches.

The HDD is very very useful because sometimes hard drives fail and having a backup can save yourself a lot of headaches.

Also useful to recover your Windows should you have a malware attack that trashes your Windows installation. A image of your hard disk makes it very easy to restore you Windows installation.

First, did you

• stop unnecessary programs from starting up at logon and from the scheduler? Use http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902 for that purpose.
  
• remove or disable unnecessary toolbars and addons from your browser? Add/Remove programs in Control Panel can get rid of most toolbars.
  
• update your anti-virus and do a full scan?
  
• clean the hard drive w/ Ccleaner and then defrag the hard drive?
  
• download and install the latest drivers for your hardware?
  
• check cables, clean off the contacts on your graphics card and memory sticks?
  

If all that really, really doesn't help, and you insist on a reinstall, I suggest you do a "repair reinstall" of Windows (google for instructions). That way you don't lose much of anything and don't need to reinstall all your programs.

Clearing the registry can help, google ccleaner, it removes a lot of junk if you have installed and uninstalled many programs over time.

Stay away from "registry cleaners". It does more harm than good.

Stay away from "registry cleaners". It does more harm than good.

Don't Iknow. I was using ccleaner and forgot to make backup of the registry. Hence my question about reinstalling Windows.

BTW. My problems started when tried to uninstall Adobe dreamweaver, I was using Revo uninstaller.

After the uninstallalation all my other Adobe products did not work. Are they somehow conected?

Backing up the registry is one thing. Cleaning it is a different matter; it's like playing Russian Roulette. The registry is a large database full of dependencies, thereby making it difficult to clean. Talk to any responsible 'tech' and they will advise against the use of registry cleaning tools. The only effective way to clean the registry is to reinstall Windows.

BTW, CCleaner is a great program; I recommend it all the time. Just don't use the built-in registry cleaner.

BTW. My problems started when tried to uninstall Adobe dreamweaver, I was using Revo uninstaller.

After the uninstallalation all my other Adobe products did not work. Are they somehow conected?

Why did you use Revo uninstaller instead of Add/Remove Programs?

BTW. My problems started when tried to uninstall Adobe dreamweaver, I was using Revo uninstaller.

After the uninstallalation all my other Adobe products did not work. Are they somehow conected?

Why did you use Revo uninstaller instead of Add/Remove Programs?

Fair question. I just thought that the Revo thing would remove more of the "left ower files" But I will try the Windows thing now.

For best results, always uninstall programs using Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel. If that fails, use Revo or some other third-party uninstaller to remove it.

By using Revo instead of the Adobe uninstall program, you probably broke something along the way...

For best results, always uninstall programs using Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel. If that fails, use Revo or some other third-party uninstaller to remove it.

By using Revo instead of the Adobe uninstall program, you probably broke something along the way...

I tried the add/remove programs. And it could not remove the programs.

BTW. My problems started when tried to uninstall Adobe dreamweaver, I was using Revo uninstaller.

After the uninstallalation all my other Adobe products did not work. Are they somehow conected?

Why did you use Revo uninstaller instead of Add/Remove Programs?

Fair question. I just thought that the Revo thing would remove more of the "left ower files" But I will try the Windows thing now.

Revo is very good at removing problem programs but if you use it in the "advanced mode", you have to be careful that it doesn't remove any files and registry entries used by other programs. Looks like you have to re-install your other Adobe products.

Thank you all for your replies. Tomorrow I'll do the reinstallation of the OS, and I hope

that drive D and E will stay intact.

Thank you all for your replies. Tomorrow I'll do the reinstallation of the OS, and I hope

that drive D and E will stay intact.

Glad you have lots of time to waste. Sounds like all you need to do is to reinstall the Adobe products that you broke--which you'll have to do anyway after the reinstall, along with everything else.

Next.

I don't see where it's mentioned that this Guy wants to Re-Format his HDD just reinstall XP which will not reformat his HDD !!!

I don't see where it's mentioned that this Guy wants to Re-Format his HDD just reinstall XP which will not reformat his HDD !!!

Well, he may reformat or not, depending on his choices at the time. My point was that after a Windows reinstall, application programs won't work because the registry has been rebuilt. They will need to be reinstalled also to put their needed entries back into the registry.

And I'm not referring to portable programs of course, which Adobe programs are assuredly not.