OMG: reinstalling windows xp

I've been dealing w/ major annoyances on my computer for last, oh, 1.5 months. I've had this Dell for around 4.5 years or so, and it's treated me well. But for whatever reason, it started acting up: anything I tried to open that used Windows Explorer wouldn't work -- folders on the desktop, My Computer, Control Panel, etc. Big time annoyance. I could open all my files using the respective programs they were associated with, but I couldn't easily move, copy, access my files. Did I mention how much this annoyed me?

After doing multiple virus, adware, spyware scans, nothing came up. I searched online for fixes and posted on forums to try to get a fix, but no luck. So finally I was left w/ the option of reinstalling XP, something I've never done before. So with some big help from Marty, I decided to take the plunge. Talk about nervous -- I was sure something was gonna go wrong, that I'd lose something. And man, did I.

I backed up everything I could think of, but I missed one crucial thing: my music database. I didn't realize that I had forgotten about the database until *after* I had reinstalled XP. I was staring at the CATraxx CD that I had put out for reinstallation of that program and then it hit me: I didn't back up the databse! Holy crap, I thought I was gonna cry! I spent over a year entering all that data for all my CDs, vinyl, and mp3s! And now it's totally gone. I searched on my backup drive -- I was sure I had it there, but nope. Gone.

So, that's it. No way I'm attempting to enter all that stuff again. I had entered over 1500 albums -- many entries were totally manual -- including things like musician credits, producer credits, songwriting credits, album art, etc. I can't believe it.

The upside tho is that, aside from that huge freakin' loss, the reinstall of XP went pretty well. My computer is running *much* better now and much faster too. I don't think I missed backing up anything else (at least until I realize I missed something else). The whole process took me a really long time. I'd estimate it took me about 2.5 days of working on it (while letting the XP install run and then the time to reinstall all my programs). Plus I reinstalled XP twice because I don't think I did it right the first time. But now I think I have everything back to normal, pretty much. And I didn't have to buy a new computer, so that's always good.