Rebuilding a computer

[beda]

I am looking to format my laptop and start again, as it's painfully slow at starting up, even though it is regularly 'serviced' - CC Cleaner, defragmenter, etc etc.
I have a 120Gb external HDD, and was wondering how to copy all my settings etc across to it.
It also runs something called Altiris, which i'm sure is useful to businessmen, backing everything up regularly, but to me it just takes up hard drive space. I store all my music and media files on my external Hard Drive, and cannot work out why it runs so slowly.
In short, i'd like to save all my settings for mozilla, openoffice, etc, but start again in setting up the computer, as it runs much slower than it did when i got it 2 months ago!
Are there any programs that can help me do this?
How do I delete Altiris without causing the computer to throw a tizzy?
It's a Compaq nc6230
Thank you in advance, I know these are stupid questions, but i'm drawing a big blank today!

[GreenV8S]

You don't say what operating system you're using, but XP has a 'files and settings transfer wizard' which sounds like the sort of thing you're after.

[beda]

xp pro, that's probably what i was thinking of, thanks mate

[Scraggles]

C:Documents and Settings ameApplication Data
C:Documents and Settings ameLocal Settings

they are main files, best to copy C:Documents and Settings mine seems a bit large at 800mb, but got a big drive and not worried

add/remove for altris, but if company one, let them do it

defrag works well at clutter, so does emptying temp folders