you gotta back up your c:/Documents and Settings/Administrator directory BEFORE you format and reinstall, then restore that folder after you reinstall.
make sure and delete HISTORY.IE5, search for it in there, it gets REAL big and who knows why it's there (the DJGIWNRO and EJRIBNWM type files are what i'm talkin about, they are "invisible" most of the time, just another reason to wonder what the F*#% is up w/ MS)