Reinstall XP w/o loosing data. I have a Dell 4400 and would like to reinstall XP over itself to repair things but not loose all my data. Is that possible?

Yep...put in the xp disk and choose upgrade. There are no guarantees it will install without problems and often it is found that it never runs as well as a clean installation. If it does install without problems you will not loose data but will need to reinstall service pack 1(if its not on the disk already) and all critical updates. -DF

Install the critical updates as you reinstall XP, otherwise you are likely to get the blasterworm immediately.

I am trying first to reinstall over Windows. The Dell Windows XP CD gives me the option to reinstall not losing programs or data. It does not give me a choice to repair. When I tried to do that it gets about three-quarters of the way through and then I get the following error message. Fatal error In an ear has been encountered that the dance set up from continuing. Set failed to install the product catalogs. This is a fatal error. This set up log file should contain more information. Press OK to view this set up log file. Here is what the Systems Setup catalog says: Warning: Set up failed to remove the product catalog IEEXCEP.CAT Warning: Setup failed to remove the product catalog wmplayer.cat Warning: Set up failed to remove the product catalog SP1.CAT And on and on and on. Any ideas?

Now I have reformatted C: and made the partition w/ "Large Disk Support". When I start the installation by going to the Windows XP CD and drilling down to I386\winnt.exe I get the following messages. Windows XP setup "Setup needs to know where the Windows XP files are located. Enter the path where Windows XP files are to be found." The path that's shown is E:\I 386. I pressed enter and it says: "setup did not detect SmartDrive on your computer. SmartDrive will greatly improve the performance of this phase of Windows setup. You should exit now, start SmartDrive, and then restart setup. See your DOS documentation for details about SmartDrive." Then as I continue I get the following message: "Windows XP requires a hard drive volume with at least 383 MB of free disk space. Setup will use part of the space for storing temporary files during installation. The drive must be on a permanently attached local hard disk supported by Windows XP, and must not be a compressed drive. Setup was unable to locate such a drive with the required amount of free space Setup cannot continue. Pressed enter to exit." QUESTIONS: 1. Do I install Smartdrv and the one partition I have created? 2. What are they asking for re: "Windows XP requires a hard drive volume with at least 383 MB of free disk space" and how do I do that? I'm no longer thewolfe I'm now overmyhead.

Well, believe it or not, I tried one more time before I hung it up for the night and it's starting to install. Don't know what I'll run into but for now it's 35% done. Will post back and let you know what's happening. Thanks for your posts.