Can I re-install Win2K Pro without losing anything?

[trots]

A few months ago I got a Maxtor Ultra ATA 100 Controller Card, mainly because I needed the extra IDE slot. I was able to hook my hard drives to it and boot without issue. Then later the AGP port on my mobo (Abit KA7) died. After installing the brand-new KA7 (I noticed the BIOS was a later rev), I could no longer get it to boot from the ATA 100 card. Windows sees the card correctly as a SCSI device, and the card itself correctly detects the drives attached to it, but then it fails as if there's no bootable device. It boots and runs perfectly from the mobo's IDE controller. I've tried all the suggestions I've been able to find in these forums, to no avail. The FAQ at maxtor.com states that, when all else fails:



<< ... you are experiencing a conflict due to a slight difference between the LBA translation of your motherboard and that of our card. The only way you will be able to get around it is to repartition/reformat your hard drive while it is connected to the Ultra ATA 100 card. >>



Kinda drastic, but even so it seems like a catch-22... how can I even do that when it won't boot when it's connected to the card? Anyway, a call to Maxtor told me I can try re-installing Windows and that &quot;might&quot; fix it. Will re-installing Windows wipe any of my stuff out on C:? Would I do a &quot;repair&quot; install? Any gotchas I should be aware of? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SoyBoy004]

reinstalling win2k again will NOT wipe your data. it should just overwrite the windows system files, as in 98.

 

[Adrian Tung]

If you reinstall over a previous installation it will also wipe out your Documents and Settings folder which contain all your user profiles, i.e. your My Documents if you haven't moved its default location. Make sure you backup your data to another directory/drive first.


atwl

 

[GAZZA]

all win2k pro will do is delete your winnt folder and your documents &amp; settings folders , other than that your fine , even all your program files will still be ok albeit some will need re-installing due to some of the shared system files etc