Computer question

I am having glitches in my OS. It's XP Professional.
Can I reinstall the system without reformatting my entire computer?
I did a repair and it was unsuccessful.
Help me please?

yes, but it probably won't fix your problem

without knowing more about the "glitches" it's hard to make a better diagnosis

my business partner accessed my computer to install Turbo Tax from his computer to mine.
After he did this, I couldn't access the program--even now.
Also, when I go to click on "My Computer", when I click on "C" drive, I get a box that says "Windows cannot find arun.exe" This program is needed for opening files of type 'File'. Type in the executable type of file to be used instead. Then there is a box I can type what I want.
My antivirus was also corrupted after this--I had to delete and reinstall.
Today, I went to stream AAR, and it won't let me open it.
To date, I have done a repair.
I also went to start--->run and typed in (trying to remember, but it allowed to me to check all files to see if anything was wrong with windows files).

that's sounds like a mess.

the easy thing will probably be to format the harddrive and reinstall windows.

you're PC might have contracted a virus. I don't know if arun.exe being a Windows program, it's probably a virus, even though it may or may not be executing. It just appears you're OS is trying to find it, which means it may have been infected.

Do a complete virus scan on your partner's PC and see if it's infected.

In any case, get your anti-virus software running and updated again first. You may not be able to reinstall the OS successfully if it is a virus.

(oh and listen to me I work in PC tech support -- if that doesn't work do what others say and reformat the drive)

not a repair.. just a reinstall over what's currently there

perhaps you want to back up your mydocuments folder.. but I don;'t have to tell you that.

Don't hesitate to explain your problem at length, either -- if possible.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=242

as a previous poster said, without more info about those "glitches" I can't give you a better diagnosis.

But in my experience, "repairs", "reinstalls" etc just don't work well. Back up your data, FDISK it, re-format it and start from scratch.

Once you have everything back up, make a disk image in case you need to restore later.

That wasn't the fix I was hoping for,lol, but it was the one I was afraid of.
Thanks.

want virus software do you use? is it up to date?

do you run anything to protect/find spyware/adware?

I run AVG, have mozilla installed, use a router and sygate firewall, and run Adaware.
Everything is up to date and I didn't have any problems til that file transfer.

Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore.

I've found this very useful after installing a bad program.

--IMM

I tried that, it would let me restore back to the 5th, but I had missing programs.
I undid the system restore, then I tried a repair. After I did the repair, it erased my restore dates except for that date.
I figured it would be easier to reinstall the programs than to mess with a wipe--but will probably have to wipe now.:cry: