reformat HD/OS ??

I am upgrading my mainboard,cpu & memory from asus AN8-E,3700+amd,corsair xmx (2x512) to a Gigabyte P35-DS3R, Intel 6850E, Team Xtreem DDR2 800(PC2 6400). I wanted to keep old hard drive( have alot of work info ) I was told that since I was changing the northbridge chipset, my OS will not work. I have never remormated HD or reinstalled OS, and do not know where to start. Still using XP. Any ideas greatly appriciated.

 

You will have to reinstall drivers for the new board however in Windows XP when you change major hardware such as a motherboard you will have to re-activate Windows. This is only a problem if your Windows XP is illegal or you have activated more than allowed times in which case you can call Microsoft to activate.

The worst case scenario, old drivers and new drivers cause conflicts and you get a BSOD error, If this occurs you can do a "Repair" of Windows and then re-activate and you should be good to go.

 

If you try to boot to the HD with it connected to the new motherboard, chances are it will not boot and your Windows will BSOD or simply lock up. 95% of the time, when a major hardware change (like a motherboard) takes place, a safe in place reload of Windows is needed. When performed correctly, there will be no loss of any data or programs, and other than reloading some drivers, everything should be the way it was before the new hardware- most of the time. It doesn't happen often, but I have done these safe repair installs and had all the shortcuts and program associations get wiped out. All the programs are still there and all the data is still there (like My Documents, etc), but none of the software will run 'cuz all the shortcuts and needed associations are gone. This is VERY rare however, and it's only happened maybe 3 or 4 times out of maybe 200 (or more) repair installations. Still, it's always a good idea to back up anything considered important before reloading Windows, just in case..... A repair install is easy: boot to your XP CD, do NOT press 'R' at the first screen where it says "press R to repair Windows". This will put you in the Recovery Console. Press Enter, then at the next screen where you're asked how to proceed, press "R" to repair the current installation. Just be absolutely certain that you don't ever choose to delete or format a partition! Setup will give you several chances to back out if you accidentally try to delete the partition, so as long as you're aware of what you're doing and you read what's on the screen, you'll be fine. It's actually pretty hard to mess it up if you're paying attention If you have more questions, feel free to post 'em! That's why we're here.

hd2k

 

Your better off formatting your hard drive and install windows because there would be hardware differences.

 

This is a last resort, usually a "Repair" of Windows will fix the problems if any occur. Installing the new drivers may fix it, you can't just say "format" and move on. If there is important data then formatting isn't really an option.

My suggestion would be to uninstall Audio and Video drivers, shut down, change the new hardware, boot up and see what happens. Normally, you will just have to re-activate. Worst case scenario you get a BSOD error because of a driver conflict. In this case you can do a "Repair" and everything is back to normal, just install the new drivers. If you still have problems then yeah a format is contemplated.