reinstall XP

>-----Original Message-----
>due to injudicious downloads and careless mucking about
with my computer it
>now runs slowly and is becoming erratic with various
links being lost (My
>Pictures/My Computer/My Music etc). i have come to the
conclusion that the
>only way out of this predicament is to wipe everything
and reinstall XP. is
>there any way i can transfer all my files and stuff
somewhere on the hard
>disk and mark it some way that it won't be affected by a
reinstall or have i
>got to put all my stuff on to CDs. Any help would be
gratefully accepted
>
>paul
>
>
>.
>