Having just been through a similar exercise, I can sympathise <img src="frown.gif" border="0">
If you can, back up your C drive. After you've reinstalled, you may be able to restore not only your IE Favourites, but many other settings and preferences. I have had some success with that - I got back some Themes without having to download them again, all my IE favourites, links, QuickSearch and a heap of other stuff.
Cheers
AA