Good Luck with that then HH.
Fingers toes n eyes all crossed for you.
One option given what you are trying to do is to make a backup of the main Documents and settings folder as this will contain all the information for all accounts on the PC.
Having done the re-install you can then go to OE and use the import option and point it towards the files in that documents and settings folder by going to the old user details that contains the database you need.
I would go belt n braces on this one and do both if the messages are absolutly vital to retain.