Windows Going Slow, will this help

[SufferWell1396]

EDIT. my friend hacked my account. disregard that post.

Anyway. My computer, which is a 1.6 GHz machine with 768 MB RAM is running very slow.
I'm thinking if i Format C and D, put all the essential files on another harddrive, then copy them back after the format
should speed it back up. is this plausable?

[FTT]

Will you reinstall Windows, or do you plan to copy and paste it? If the latter, it will NOT work. You can clone the HDD with the manufacturer's utilities, but if the installation was hosed in the first place and this is what you were trying to get away from, the problems usually just piggy-back in with the cloning. :(

Save your files, then format and reload Windows. If XP or newer, plan on needing to give them a call to reinstate the user rights or copy-pasting the 2 (unique) *.bak files needed to pass WGA so it will know it is still the same computer.

[SufferWell1396]

I'm going to Reinstall Windows yes. Windows 2k and XP.
I have NT and 98 in the boot to, but they're too old now.
My graphics card doesnt even support either of them, so its pointless.
I'll drop Microsoft a call if I have any problems.
The only things i'm going to copy over are useful apps/games and music
a 20 gig HDD should probably cover it.

[Paul Komski]

If you are going to reinstall then just do your backup and delete all partitions before recreating them during the installations.

You are most unlikely to be able to reinstall most "copied programs"; the installers yes but most exe files need to be actually and formerly reinstalled and that isn't usually done by copy and paste. There are exceptions but they are usually simple programs that don't require registry access.

If you don't have the drivers (as downloads or on CDs etc) then these too can be backed up in advance using driver backup software (http://www.zhangduo.com/driverbackup.html).