Formatting a computer because of Total War problems?

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I've been trying to format my laptop for some time, as it seems to be malfunctioning when I play Rome: Total War (I am a massive Total War fan ) I have tried following instructions online (wikianswers etc). but they say you need the reboot disk and I don't really know what that is.

Whenever I start a custom battle or quick battle, the game stops working without any explanation. In addition, whenever I try to save a campaign game, the game says "Save failed. Couldn't create save file on disk."

I have managed to work out that nothing is wrong with the game, as I bought the expansion packs (Barbarian Invasion and Alexander) a week or so after the problems began, uninstalled Total War, and reinstalled it using the new disks.

Any help is appreciated

I make sure I have hard copy disks for every piece of software, windows, drivers, etc. I make screen captures of my installed softwares for future download and use.

I format my harddrives about one a year. Then reinstall everything. This may help you, though if you don't have the original install DVD of windows, then you might need to call your PC maker and buy this disk $20-40 tops. With that DVD, when you put it in and restart your PC, the disk should start, and, begin windows from the DVD-ROM.

You'll need the drivers for your video card, and ethernet port, likely also on a DVD. These things will make your life easier at the next format time.

Ask me more if I can help but you need that windows install DVD first, and PC drivers CD too.

Good luck. And yes, formating and reinstalling software is necessary as windows gets bogged down in updates, downloads and files inevitably.

Keep "Keys" or codes for all your downloadable paid content so after the format you can verify with the company you already own said downloadable content. If need be.

You can also just download and burn the ISO yourself using bittorrent or on the web, rather than paying for the DVD.

The downside is that you'll need to be sure to get all the drivers for your laptop, especially the networking drivers, before you reinstall Windows.
They should be available on the manufacturer's website.

Make sure to back up any important data as formatting the drive will wipe it.
The Windows install disc for whatever version you're running will give you the option of formatting the drive.
Do it, then reinstall Windows, connect to the internet, and spend the next day or so updating Windows.
Once that's done reinstall your software and you should be good to go.

Good luck!

Feel free to PM if you have any questions.