If I reinstall OSX will I lose data?

My 4.5 year old iMac has got some sort of glitch.  When I turn it on it does not progress any further than a blue screen.  Sometimes some error messages appear to say that something or other had quit unexpectedly.  The error messages had three options ignore, report and relaunch but I was unable to select any of them.
I took it it the Genius Bar and the bloke there was able to start it when he plugged something into it and said that the data was still there.  He did some diagnostics and the hardware was all ok.
He seemed to think that there was a problem with the operating system and that if I had access to another Mac I might be able to treat it as some sort of external drive and retrieve the data from there, and then re-install the operating system I might be able to sort it out even if that meant wiping everything off and starting again.  Unfortunately my allotted time ran out. 
I am now the owner of a MacBook Pro, I have plugged them together and I can see the other computer but Finder only says 'connection failed'.
Back to my original question if I use my original Install Discs to re-install OSX, will this mean that I will lose everything?
Cheers,
Cameron

1. Doing that requires using a FireWire connection and starting up the iMac with the T key held down. Ethernet and wireless connections require a bootable OS.
2. No. Back up the data anyway; see #1.
(70881)

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