thanks guys
will give XP sp1 a go and hopefully it wont screw up my system even more
its not the data to be honest, cuz i can just transfer that all to my external usb2.0 20gb external HDD just as temporary backup.
its the fact that i've got tonnes of programs on it.
also, i had lots of spyware on my system. i removed it with some software and thats when IE started crashing with 2 or more IE windows open. hopefully sp1 will sort it, if not i'd prefer to format the my love muffin.
laterz
oh yeah, my system is an athlon 1.4gh (1600) with 256mb ram and a 40gb hard disk with 64mb 3d card.