reinstall xp without losing files with2 harddrives

[beccabob]

i am running windows xp on a dell demension 4400 with the main drive a 40 gb and secondary drive as a 160 gb. i would love to reinstall and start fresh (system not running as good as it should)i have recently installed norton works, spybot, and adaware and now things seem worse so i wanna start from scratch. ok, here's the big question. should i use the 40 gb or the 160 as my main hd? i have 20 gb worth of songs on the 160 that i cannot lose or my wife will deball me (ouch). also about 1 gb of pics that i dont wanna lose. can i re-install windows (and all the other crud) without losing these files somehow? i need a step by step, am a newbie who's got himself too deep into this to know what to do. plz help!!!! thanks in advance!! :•)

 

[arkus]

You can certainly use the 40gb h/d for windows, in fact you'd be better off with an even smaller partition on that drive for windows alone (around 10gb seems to be the generally accepted sweet spot).

Make sure you copy *all* the files you want to keep from the 40gb drive before proceeding (my docs, pics, favourites etc etc).

For a complete guide to installing windows xp from scratch (and some good info on partitioning strategies) see <A HREF="http://windows.radified.com/" target="_new">Radified's Guide.</A>

<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=2765&st=0#entry21597" target="_new">My Rigs</A>

 

[miniklobb]

once coppied it's quite easy if you have a full install version of xp, pop in the cd and follow the instruction, but this will delete ALL the files on the drive that it is installed to

P4 2.8c
Seagate 160g 7200rpm 8mb cache
2x256 Crucial PC3200
Asus P4P800

 

[blah]

is your 40 gig drive ALL one partition?

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...