Dell XPS 8300 Support Says To Re-install Windows

I purchased a Dell XPS 8300 almost 1 year ago.The last couple months I have had boot issues when I turn the pc on.All hardware tests (since I purchased the pc have passed with no problems).The boot issues are where all the icon's for the short cuts do not load and or the icon to show I am connected to the internet does not load properly. If I try to do alt/control/delete I cannot access anything.Then in most cases if I do a hard re-boot,the computer boots properly.Today was the killer. My wife turned on the pc and she got a blank screen.She then attempted a hard re-boot and for over 3 hr's it showed "loading game" on the middle of the screen. When I came home for lunch,my wife was on the phone with Dell. After they had her do a hard re-boot,the computer booted properly (after the usual "start windows normally" option came up. The "tech" connected on the pc and basically did all the things I could think of (i.e. hardware test to really check the hard drive etc.)When the "tech" could not fiqure out any other issue,he said that we will need to re-set to factory settings and that they are sending us a usb key to do that. In his judgement,there is a problem with the install of Windows 7 and that is the only thing that they can figure out is the problem. Outside of the "booting issues" the pc has worked great and I have had no other problems.

I am not a "techy",but I am also computer literate learning how to do basic things from watching my friends and learning how to access things on Windows to do basic repair. Long and short,does that seem like my only alternative?..I did make the recovery discs,still have the driver discs. I have re-installed Windows before (when I upgraded my Laptop and other desk top to Windows 7) and it is painful to make sure I made copies of everything I want to back-up,which I usually do and re-install all my softwear.