hi
i have reinstalled xp about 3 times now without formating due to the exact same problem you have, i didnt feel like moving a whole bunch of data.
what i have done is the following:
1. boot of off the CD or XP startup disk and go into maintenance mode either F4 or F5 or F8, i forgot which, follow the appropriate options until it gives you he command prompt access without actually loading the OS from your HD.
make sure here that on your startup disk, you have the current xp utility for reseing file attributes, manually creating directories, deleting, moving, etc.
2. after you boot from teh CD or boot disk and NOT from the HD where the OS is installed, make sure you boot into command prompt and not into the graphic user interface. if you start up with graphics, reboot and try another of the options until you are in good old DOS style command prompt.
3. switch directory to he root drive where the Win XP is installed and reset all files attributes (*.*) to visible. you will find a whole crap of hidden stuff that is there. then do teh same in your main user directory, windoes dir, and program files dir.
note here: sometimes you have to type in the entire path to the command where the attribute utility is located, most likely the one you booted from if you created it correctly, for example: d:/utils/attrib -h c:/*.* you can learn about the commends from the help included in the win xp itself, real easy to access and simply read up on it for an hour or so, it will give you the syntax and everything.
4. after you reset the hidden attribute and everything becomes properly visible, remove the read-only and system attributes from the directories i mentioned above.
5. at this point, reboot and go back to the exact same prompt mode, i dont know why but my HDs regarless of brands and systems all hang during next part if i do not reboot first.
6. deltree c:/windows
deltree c:/progra~
deltree c:/documen~
etc. etc. until all the directories which you do not want to keep are gone. deltree, delete or other utilities (rd or alike) are still there underneath it all.
7. after you remove all the directories, switch to root, usually c:/ and delete everything except io.sys file. everything else can safely and easily go on its merry way.
8. reboot back to the original HD, at this point if you did everything right, your comp should give you system failure or boot disk failure, something liek that, win should not start upo at all, not even command prompt, nothing. the HD should not work. if you did it wrong, it wil lkick in some weird auto repair options and try to repair itself. then go back to command prompt and keep deleting more until all windows components are gone.
9. reboot again, this time into normal installation mode. when you boot from CD and/or start up disk this time, just run the regular installation to the drive. the file system is already there and teh HD will not be formatted, but everything will be new and shining sorta. with the directories you left behind on your HD.
it sounds a bit complicated but its really very simple once you get the hang of it. just acess the dos prompt help files and see. o and almost every command has its own explanation switch, for example dir, for directory, type dir /? and see what comes up, then type help, it will give you a list of all available commands, make sure you copy them all to your startup. they are also located on teh win xp CD but then you have to type in teh whole paths etc.
godd luck
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