Reinstall OE 5

HI,
Since I downloaded and installed the OE 6 Dec patch I have had terrible trouble First lots of MSIMN failures. Via tools and repair I am now running OE 5 and upon clicking on a message I get an error msg saying "There was an error opening the message--an error has occurred" !!!
Also when I try to reply or click "new message" I get a msg saying
"The address book has failed to load. OE is incorrectly configured pls reinstall "
If I do this will I lose my current mail folders?? my address book??
Also what is the procedure to reinstall OE 5 and not lose those files??
I use Win 98 and have a Dell 450 MH machine and am an ex-prodigy user taken over by SBC Yahoo.
Thanks, MF(ig)

 

Check out these links.

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=+..._dt=i&as_sitesearch=microsoft.com&safe=images

 

Dr B , Thanks, I read the responses to the query and they scared me.. So many steps I knew I'd mess up. So I used my ie6 disk and I am functionally OK now but I continue to get the mismn error. The system keeps on running if I don't close the error message box. I can also access and backup all my mail and address files so i reckon I'll live with it and start looking for a new system so I can use MSXP.
Thanks for your help.

 

moldyfig--Others have reported incompatibility problems between OE5 and IE6. Since you have an IE6 disk, you should be able to install OE6 from it.