[JenB]

To make sure you're clear on this: do you have a boot disk (floppy)? You'll need that to get the files so that you can run the installation from CD.

Hair, it's not quite as drastic as it sounds, not if you've got everything backed up. I format computers at home all the time when the boys have drastically screwed them up. If you've got everything you need it's basically a piece of cake - unless you've got machinery that's too old.

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, with only 32 MB of RAM, (and he is not the original owner, so may not have all the discs for the machine) I suspect it is one of those old machines.

Reformatting is not a big deal for a computer geek, but unless ksen is one of those (and I am not), I would be VERY hesitant tell him to reformat... in case something goes very wrong and he is left with a Boat Anchor for a computer.

More RAM is needed, but some improvement may be made by cleaning up and running leaner.