Installing XP without formatting

[hiredgun2112]

if i install XP on a hard drive that already has XP, would i lose all my media files (mp3's, divx files) if i dont format before installing?

[Met-AL]

No you won't. It still would be a good idea to back it all up.

[Synful Serenity]

I normally don't format either when I reinstall XP....I do delete all OS files first though, which is the same net effect as formatting the drive and copying all non-OS data over afterwards.

[hiredgun2112]

what happened was, windows would always freeze whenever it got to the loading gui. Repair install with the xp disk would also freeze. nothing was backed up so i tried doing this.

Everything is all wierd now because the original OS files were still there. I'm probably going to back up all my media files, then format and fresh install the OS. Would it be a better idea to put my OS in a smaller partition and put all my important stuff in a larger one? I have a 200 gig hd....what size partition is good?

[Met-AL]

Make your Windows partition large enough to hold Windows and all your applications to keep it simple since they most often require reinstallation with Windows anyways. I have a 50 gig partition on one of my drives for this.