Some other people have reported having problems downloading recently. Dunno what's up.
About download.com just in general, you'll often see the most interesting comments there. Sometimes people don't like a product or vendor and just like to dog it by posting stuff. Or who knows what the real situation is that resulted in the problems they say they have? Someone will always claim they had to reformat their PC because of some software product that most others I know find totally innocuous and incapable of damaging a system in that fashion. So take such feedback with a grain of salt.
As for bootskins, I haven't had any problems yet with the program on XP, FWIW. I usually check the comments for skins (not just bootskins) to see if anyone's reported problems with a particular skin. If/when there are common issues, especially serious ones, with an SD product you'll see it openly discussed here at WC and also in the SD newsgroups.
At any rate, making regular backups is always a good thing for quick recovery should ever one need it. This provides some insurance in the event of any hiccup at any time, not just when trying out new software of which you may be unsure.
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