Software Nightmare

i plan on yanking this hd, putting in my new wd caviar se 80 gb 8mb cache 7200 rpm hd, and running a full clean install of xp. so, the pc will recognize both the hd and usb card even though they didn't have 2.0 or 7200rpm hd back in the day when this thing was built?

 

You shouldn't have any issues.

Is this an OLD custom computer, or is this an OEM (dell, compaq, etc). If an OEM, what make and model?

Still, I don't really see an issue.

 

it's an hp pavilion 6736 kr . it's oem but not for long. i've had it with Win ME and now that i have hi-speed, i need the extra ports. if this works o.k. i want to try to rechip it. it's a coppermine but i hear i can adapt to a Tualatin( did i spell that right?) processor up to 1.4 gb or so. have you heard of this? also, can u give me a short step by step of doing the changeout on the usb, hard drive, and os? i don't want to mess this up.

 

Turn off the computer, then unplug the power cable.

The USB should easily fit in any PCI slot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripheral_Component_Interconnect

Take the old hdd out, replace with the new. Make sure the new hdd is set for either master, or cable select.

The rest is fairly self explanatory.

Is this your only computer to access the internet with?

 

yes it is the only one in the house. i have some at work incase this one takes a crap and i need a dl or something. my big concern is my BIOS and being able to reload the hp programs i need for the pc. all i have is the pavilion recovery 3 disk set to work with. is this going to be enough? i am planning on using the 20 gb 5400 rpm old hd for music and storage for solidworks and autocad. kinda my personal hd since i share this pc with the missus.just set it up to run usb externally.

 

more questions- what will i see when i boot up after putting my new hd in? do i put it in and put the windows xp disk in and then boot? what about the hp stuff i need ?