hey..if i want to reinstall windows XP,do i have to back up my files or not?

Answer 1

There are two kinds of reinstalls. The first is where you completely wipe the hard drive clean (reformat) and then reinstall the XP. Any files, programs, etc. on the hard drive will be erased so if you don't want to lose anything, back it up to some location other than the drive you're going to reformat.

The other option is a repair install. This just overwrites the existing XP with a clean copy. It will not do anything to programs, personal settings, etc. But you would have to visit the Windows Update site to reinstall any patches, hotfixes, updates, etc. that came out after your XP install disk was made. And that would include SP2 if it's not on the install disk.

These two links give step by step instructions and screenshots of what you would see during either reinstall. I selected XP Pro but the steps are the same for XP Home.

http://www.windowsxpprofessional.windowsreinstall.com/sp2installxpcdoldhdd/indexfullpage.htm >reformat/reinstall

http://www.windowsxpprofessional.windowsreinstall.com/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm >repair install

plrr

Answer 2

just do a repair install not a recovery it'll be the second R option and that will re-install windows without the loss of your files you have on your hard drive already

Answer 3

That depends.
If you have a lot of important stuffs in the disk where you installed the winxp,you should back up your files of that disk.

Answer 4

If you have a d:\ drive, transfer all your files there. You will not have to make any backups on this drive.

Answer 5

backup anything important, just to be sure.

Answer 6

thats >.

Answer 7

no