Hello T Arnold,
You wrote, "If I unstall the copy they put on my computer, will I also loose my data?"
A: Generally speaking, the process of uninstalling Office does not delete any documents saved within your "user profile" which is that location on the computer where each user's documents and settings are stored. On XP the default location is
c:\documents and settings\YOUR_USER_NAME. On Vista and W7 the default location is c:\users\YOUR_USER_NAME.
You wrote, "Or do I need to back up my data and start over?"
A: Before making any major change to your computer, such as installing or uninstalling a major program such as Office, you should always back up any data you cannot afford to lose.
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