If your windows box is to the point of requiring this action. Your stepping on your own dick by not reformatting.

Otherwise known as a 'dirty install'.This will let you save your data so you can delete partitions and reformat later etc...etc...

Try nlite,it will save you a lot of time if you put the time in...

I learned the hard way about this. I discovered it after using my lifeline call to microsoft free call to India.

LOL

nlite is friggin awesome. I have been using it for at least the last year to make slipstreamed install CDs.

I used this way to reinstall once and get data I thought I had lost... Beleive me... I was almost in tears and praying the entire time this install was going through that I didn't lose my scripts and the pictures my wife had spent months scanning into the computer...

Since that time I have begun a moderately regular backup schedule!

Problem is: Sometimes it just doesn't work. No idea why, but when I worked tech support, about 75% of the time, the install just crapped out on us. Might have had to do with our setup, but it sucked.

Luckily we were douchebags and used Norton Ghost to re-image the hard drives. Causing the user to lose EVERYTHING they didn't back up.

Moral of the story... if you use windows (or have any Really Important Files) KEEP A FUCKING BACKUP.