Using Recovery CD.....What will it do?

I have a Compaq Presario 1200 with Win ME that is in pretty bad (software) shape.
It takes about 8-10 mins to boot and it has a lot of flakey error messages when trying to run apps.

I have run Adaware, Spybot and a couple different Anti-Virus programs and everything that they could cleaup/fix has been done.

I tried to upgrade the IE from 5.5 to 6.0 but it 'hung' in the middle of updating.

When I boot now, it asks if I want to continue the update or start the update from the beginning. I have tried both oprions and it still 'hangs' - never completing.

I ran Norton's Win Doctor and have made all the fixes it identified.

Now, I'm at the point where I'm thinking of using the Recovey CD to try to fix it.

But, what will the Recovery CD do?

Will it wipe out other apps (Word, Excel, etc) that were installed?

I'm also considering just formatting the drive and starting over again with XP Pro but I'd hate to have to backup/restore all the docs, data, etc. and reinstall all of the apps after doing that.

Any ideas on how I might be able to salvage this unit?

Thanks in advance.......

 

The recovery Cd will return the computer to software to exactly how you bought it. Anything intstalled after that point will be lost.

Same goes for data.

 

Your best bet would be to format and start over with XP Pro

 

Windows ME should not exist. Looks like you are going to be formatting.