How to save critical programs on my desktop before I recover/format the hard Drive?

Question

I have AMD Athelon Gateway, The Office 2003 program and the past Mc Afee (Free from Comcast) cause the system run very slow and some times hang up, trying to reinstalll M/S office 2003 still doesn't work. Gateway send me recovery disc and told me to run and wipe out evrything and start like a new fresh computer.
I do need to save some of the programs like: Nero; DVD fab; DVD shrink; Power DVD and some of my personal files in My Document.
How can I save all of those files and later to reinstall back???
Thank you

Answer 1

You can't save them on your desktop, then reformat your drive because everything will be deleted.

You need to save them to an external drive, like a flash drive, or CD-ROM. If those aren't options for you, then you can email those files to yourself, then email them back. But depending on your internet speed, that might not be best option.

Answer 2

Sorry. Format erases the entire hard drive. You will have to reinstall everything. Unless you save/backup files you created to some sort of external storage, you will lose that also.

Before format, you should make sure you have all the CDs from programs you want to reinstall, and backup all files you have created to external storage.

It is for this reason that most of us try to avoid this procedure.

There are some simple remedies which you can try to speed up your computer. Why not take some time and do them first?

1. Set wallpaper and screensavers to blank or none — they run continuously in the background and use memory.
-----right-click on the desktop, select Properties
-----click the screensaver tab, on the left where it says "screensaver," select none.
-----click the desktop tab, for background, select none
2. Review your start menu – remove anything you don’t need on a daily basis — load games, etc. on an as-needed basis.
-----click Start, Settings, Taskbar and Start Menu
-----click the Start Menu tab
-----select a program you do not want to load at Startup, then click remove.
-----Caution -- do not touch anything you are not sure of or you will mess up your computer royally.
3. From Internet Explorer, click Tools, Internet Options: delete cookies, delete files (offline), and clear history. (You can also set days to store history to 0.)
----- These actions will clear your computer’s cache. (For a description of cache, go to http://help.yahoo.com/l/ph/yahoo/mail/access/access-27210.html )
4. Run Disk Cleanup, Scandisk, Defrag at least every two weeks (the more frequently they are run, the less time they take).
-----These can be found in Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools.
5. Periodically, click Start, Programs, Run — then type ipconfig renew
(that’s ipconfig space renew).
6. Optional: Speed vs Goodies — in the Control Panel, System, Advanced, Performance, Settings — you can have visual effects or let Windows select the best options. I am using “Best Performance.” Your choice.
These things should increase speed and free up memory as much as possible.

Top 10 Causes of a Slow or Freezing PC
Source: http://pctuneuptips.com/tips/slow_pc/
**********************************

Spring Cleaning Help from Microsoft
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA100970121033.aspx?pid=CH011085921033