From a friend w/ dual boot:
Since i mentioned that is was possible i decided to try it. The Dell laptop was getting wonky. I don't use any virus protection and I picked up some malware, It was starting to slow down.
I never keep anything too important on the laptop but the downloads folder was filled with installers and videos and what not, plus a the most recent family pics.
Anyway, i launched linux, backed up the win user files to the linux side and reinstalled the OS "installation will erase everything on the disk, are you sure you want to do this?" -- YES.
Put on a clean win7, nice and zippy, no malware. and then rebooted to linux to move my files back.
worked great.