how to partition+other problems...

[blade2]

currently running Win XP on an Athlon 1900+, with 2 HD's,
C Drive is 40 Gig with Win XP installed on it along with all my proggies..
D: is a 8 Gig with all my mp3's etc

My computer has lately been playing up on me so i would like to reinstall Win XP. I forget whether reinstalling WinXp will mean i will lose all my proggies??
If so, and even not, i was thinking that partitioning a section for Win XP only - is this worthwhile?
Lastly, how do i carry out this partitioning?i downloaded Paragon Partition 5.5 which i found out via Download.com recieved mixed reviews.Not going to pay for any programmes like Partition Magic or anything.Am willing to reformat C:

A little advice/help would be much appreciated, sorry for the rubbish layout/wording of this post..

 

[Le Québécois]

If you're going to reformat C...and reinstall winXP...you can make several partition with the winxp setup process...when it ask you to choose a drive to install you can delete them all and create new one....the only otehr way i trust is partition magic...sorry.

 

[whitelight]

from my experience, the best way to partition is partition magic.

but if your comp is acting up, and you reinstall xp, i suggest you format your drive and start from scratch. you will lose all your proggies, but it doesn't take a long time to reinstall them. backing up all your data is the annoying part.

 

[everman]

What I do to avoid having to reinstall and all that crap, just install 2 or 3 instances of the same OS (I do 3 at home on a 120gb hd so that's np). If one installation of xp or 2k just seems to be bogged down with crap from spyware and programs, etc, I can move to the other one with no problems.