Oh, and to answer your second question, reflashing the OS (Maemo) doesn't affect the contents of the rest of the phone - it just rewrites a small section (partition). That's why after a reflash, all of your pictures, music etc. are still there.

However, reflashing the OS won't fix some kinds of problems, and so it's possible to reflash everything else, too. That's called reflashing the eMMC, and there are instructions on the Wiki in the usual place.

Although: BEWARE THAT FLASHING THE EMMC WILL DELETE ALL YOUR EXISTING DATA.