Can I do this?

[asintu]

My computer died on me so im building a new system and want to use the old hdd...
im pretty sure it won't work now so i'll have to reinstall windows..but also don't wanna lose some files
can i reinstall windows on top of that ...then get some files with an external usb drive and then format and reinstall windows again...is it possibile?

 

[spherrod]

Yep - that should work, as long as you don't format the drive during the XP install.....

 

[asintu]

i hope it won't be necessary to format during install