the loss of the data in it is not a big concern ,i have only had it for 6 weeks so it is not actually overloaded and i have everything in either the other laptop or the desktop, if you would take the time to advise please if it would solve the problem, regards pm
There is no loss of data if you do it from the recovery disk that can be created from Windows Backup and Restore. It just checks for corrupt OS files and restores them. You can also use the Windows Install disk and click "Repair my computer" at the welcome screen and it will restore critical OS files that are missing or corrupt, as well as fix many common problems without actually having to wipe any data.
I haven't tried the recovery disk provided by Backup and Restore, but I'd imagine the OS disk provides more utilities and OS files that you can restore from, because it is what contains the entire OS, and the recovery disk created from Backup and Restore contains only 600 or so MB work of files.
You can use another computer running Windows 7 to create one of these recovery disks from Backup and Restore, or, if you have a spare Windows 7 install CD, you can boot that up and try clicking "Repair my computer" at the welcome screen. Doing this, there is no loss of data.
Also, if you wish, you can just do a complete reinstall. This can be done using a recovery partition (which comes with most modern computers running Windows 7) or using recovery disks that came with the computer. This is the recommended method. You can also recover using an untouched Windows 7 disk, but then you will have to go through Windows activation and reinstall all your drivers.