Windows Easy Transfer question..?

MY PC screwed up after a bad reboot & corrupted a few files & consequently I need to reinstall my OS (after formatting the drives). I need to copy all my files from my PC which is running Vista to an external drive, then back again (some of the files are corrupted, but I know which ones & will exclude these). I'm using Windows Easy Transfer. Could someone please show me the step-by-step procedure to do this? I tried once & obviously did it the wrong way, as it didn't work. Thank you!