I don't use windoze myself except when working on other peoples computers. I think windoze, XP included, suck. I would not pay that kind of money for something that has so many security flaws, requires reboots all the time etc etc etc etc. It's not worth it to me.
Weither you use FIPS or some other program, you need to defrag first. That is what everybody says and I base that on my own experience as well. The same can be said for making backups of your data. You don't have to, but don't get mad if you screw up something and loose your data.
Later
