Questions about reinstalling Windows

Hi Geeks.

I've read in various posts around here people say, "yeah, I have to reinstall Windows every (month, two months...) to (insert reason here)." How does that work? I mean, if I reinstall Windows, what will I lose? Will I lose only programs and settings? Or will I lose everything?

I ask these questions, cause I'm experiencing some problems with a new video card I bought (see the hardware section), and I'm thinking that it might just be worth it to start all over again and reinstall windows and set the computer up that way. My only hesitation with this is that I didn't backup my email messages (yes, I know, I'm an idiot! ) and there are some music files on there that would be hard to replace. On the other hand, when it comes right down to it, I don't really mind losing that stuff too much...I can always find the email addresses I lost, and the music I can get again. Anyway, that's another story....

Thanks for the help, Geeks.

 

Hehe...little knowledge or common sense to backup...that's me to a T!

Thanks for the info, though. BTW, would you know of any guides out there (or here at MG) that could take me through how to reinstall windows? I'm still not sure whether or not I'm going to do this...there are a couple more things I want to try with the card before I call it quits...but it would be nice to take a look at a "how-to" so that I know what I'm going to be doing before I do it.

Also, I'm just going to reask this question here while I'm at it: since this whole fiasco with my new video card, every time I start up my computer, during the Windows "welcome screen," Windows starts to run CHKDSK on all my drives (3: c, e, f). It's really annoying and it happens every time I reboot. Do you why it's doing this and how I can make it stop?

Thanks

 

I'm using Windows XP home.

Now, if I reinstall Windows and format the drive...can I leave my new video card in (it's the thing causing all the problems now)? Will Windows set everything up when it reinstalls?

 

install

Hello,
The so called win half life has to do with maintainence. With proper use of recleaner and win utilities an install can preform near new forever. I don't say this lightly. I can't say how many calls from freinds and relatives I've answered and with regcleaner it's just amazing how much clutter builds up and it is possable to fix near anything using it too discover the roots of problems and fix them. Missing and corrupted drivers and driver files is always the second thing I fix file by file. I've reserrected machines that had blue screens every five minutes too fully functioning, error free stable OS systems with regleaner and studying the system and it's drivers. If I can do it anyone can. I have reinstalled win over a previous copy both with a new formatt and without. I've found that without formatting and slowing down the install almost nothing gets lost even small files. I would always try to repair it first. Good luck. Regards.