some recovery CD will wipe off everything on your HDD, to back to the original status as you receives it. So, make sure it won't do this if you want to use the recovery CD. One choice is to get a bootable XP CD, and repair or re-install, your data and programs won't be lost in this way.
If you have important data on HDD and you are not sure ....don't do anything. Ask ***** else help you.