Repairing XP home

[bhxtyrant]

Hey guys,
Another XP question well this ones been asked a million times but i cant remember the command.Fist a bit of backround info.A friend of mine has a XP Home PC for this question speks arent really important so ill save typing all that.For a long time now they have had alot of minor issues with XP having errors.Most were minor but as time goes by they are getting worse.Under normal circumstances a format would be the best course of action but since they have a ton of important information on there PC and no way to back it all up it's out of the question.

However i think the problem could be solved by doing a repair of windows XP.The problem today was when they attempted to do a disc cleanup in XP the system rebooted automatically and gave back a strange error involving "steering program" i dont understand it as the XP version they have is in another language (there native language).Now i know i cant remember the command but i know there is a way to transfer all the main XP files from the CD to the PC via command prompt.Maybe someone can help me with that.

Now for the experts if the problem is something simple such as a damaged file what are the odds of it being fixed by using the method i just described.Now 2nd if all else fails i was going to suggest a repair of XP using the XP CD this might end up being the best bet without formating.However there PC came with a XP recovery CD and i am unsure if it is even the same as a normal copy of XP and will allow a repair.I also was wondering if doing a repair install will delete any internet connection settings such as the settings for a DSL connection.So just wanted to here some opinions and suggestions or any info one of you might know to help.Thank guys.

EDIT:Also one more question as i have never tryed this.I was just doing a bit of reading via google search and i read that if you are still able to boot into XP you can simply insert the CD and use the XP installationg screen by selecting "upgrade" and this will perform the same function as booting via CD and using the repair option.Any truth to this?