barebones system

[pablo2u]

I am purchasing a "bare bones " system: AMD TH-BIRD 1.33 GHz,
Shuttle AK31 VIA KT266 DDR Socket A M.board, ATX case 400 watt power supply and (4) 256MB DDR PC2100. Can I take my existing hard drive without wiping the OS (Windows XP)
and install it or do I have to reformat the drive and do a clean install? You guys have always been more than helpful and your service is invaluable. Thanks in advance (once again)

 

[brianF]

I really think you would be better off with a clean install of xp, it's not going to like all those system device changes.

Usually you could try getting away with it by booting in safe mode, going into device manager, removing all the system devices, rebooting and letting windows reinstall.

With xp that might be a task, it doesn't seem really friendly to hardware changes from what I have seen and heard.

My two cents anyway

You could hook the old drive up as a slave and copy your data files over though.

 

[crjdriver]

You can do it if your old system is using windows default chipset drivers. If it is using proprietary drivers then windows will not boot with the new mb. In any case I think you will be happier with fewer problems if you do a clean install of the operating system. Doing this without a format and clean install will leave a lot of unnecessary driver files on your hd. This can lead to problems down the road. I just noticed that you are using xp. I think it would work the same as any other os; however I do not have xp so I cannot be sure. Perhaps someone else can jump in and let you know if xp will act the same as any other windows os.

 

[Max19]

Windows XP must be reactivated if you change a certain number and/or combination of hardware devices. Taking the hard drive out and installing it in a totally new computer definitely fits this criteria. I'm not entirely sure you'll even be able to boot into Windows XP if you put the drive in another computer. You could give it try, but first back up all your data while the drive is still in the old computer.

 

[deuce]

Xp is probably the last OS you could get away without doing a clean install with the new mobo. Even if you are just upgrading from a previous version of windows, you will get a lot of problems where as it is just easier to do a clean install, so upgrading alone is a task, let alone switching the mobo on it. So anyway, using Xp I would definately not try it. You will most likely just waste time in trying to fix things, ect. You are better off just doing as clean install. Do you have another HD? If you do then you could probably get away with transfering all your programs back on afterwards and not have to spend time reloading them. (but only if you are using Xp right now)

 

[pablo2u]

Thanks agiain for all your input. I was just trying to do things the lazy way, but I know you're right. I'll transfer my data files on my secondary drive while still in current system..........format the main drive....install it my new system............and reload xp. Anything else I should be cautious of? (ASUS7700 vid card, SB Live sc, ethernet card)

 

[deuce]

Not that I know of. As long as your HD is Xp now, and you do a Xp clean install on the new HD, than if you want to be lazy you can just transfer program files back on and not have install them again. Just make sure you re-activate Xp.