New mobo&Cpu

[dudevenezuela]

I have a new motherboard and CPU ...In order to install the new mobo drivers Can I just reinstall windows Xp without formating my harddrive?
Because I don't want to do a back up of my musica and documents ..
If I reinstall Windows Xp ... Will I still have my documents...?

[SingaBoiy]

Do a repair install. You keep all your files but still have to install new drivers and such.

[Seedler]

Do a repair install. You keep all your files but still have to install new drivers and such.

a LOT of compatibility issues can rise from a repair install. Get a hard drive partition program like Partition Magic and make a new partition and install windows on that partition. The best way would be to back up all your data on DVDs. I would strongly advise against a repair install.

[Virtualbody1234]

What motherboard did you have before and what is the replacement?

If the boards use the same chipset then a repair may not even be needed.

If not then you could try the repair install but it's better to do a clean install.

[Formula1]

im planning on getting a new mother and cpu, can someone please verify the best way to intall windows, without losing any data on my harddrive... at Seedler, what if i have over 200GB of data, then what?

[fkdup74]

The best way would be to back up all your data on DVDs.

maybe best for you, maybe not best for him/her
maybe he/she doesn't have a DVD burner?
maybe he/she doesn't have extra dough to dish out
for x amount of DVDs necessary to back up x amount of data?
not to mention the time to burn all the discs
but if the burner and the discs are there, yeah it's an option,
better or worse is totally circumstantial

for me, an external HDD is best, that's just what works for me
it's sitting right here on my desk, and all I have to do is make a few mouse clicks
(or set the software to do auto backups, which really lets me excercise my laziness)
I get more data backep up faster that way
I have the DVD burner, I have the DVDs to spare,
but I have also had data backups on DVD go to shit before (don't ask)


@ dude...
I know you said you didn't want to backup, but you may have to

if there's enough free harddrive space, shrinking the C: drive
and creating another partition to backup the data would be free
the apps to do it are out there just waiting to be grabbed,
hell, if that's a viable option and you just need the software, let me know

if you're going from a 32 bit CPU/mobo to a 64 bit CPU/mobo,
I'd say to hell with an attempted repair, just do your backups then reformat/reinstall

but if you're still on the same architecture, and same chipset,
then like VB said, you may just get away with swapping the hardware, I have before

[Gripper]

I think clocker came up with a good idea in one of his threads,he has a small dedicated drive just for windows,I thinkhe said it was a raptor(?),is that an option,spend a few quid on a small drive and pop it on that.

My question from that would be how to uninstall the windows you already have,and how would you re associate all the programs you already have,with the newly installed windows?

[clocker]

I do like a small C: drive, but I install all my apps on it too.
All of my .exes are backed up as well as raw data*, so they can just be reinstalled as necessary.

*My computer use cannot ( and should not) be considered exemplary or normal however.
Sprocket is a toy and benchmarking monster, not a regular day-to-day PC.
On average, I think I reinstall Windows at least 3 times a month either because of hardware changes or overclocking mishaps.

For a more normal user I would recommend a 20-40GB drive as a C: drive and then the biggest slave drive you feel necessary to hold data.

[dudevenezuela]

Thanks I think I have to do a back up after all (Wuth DVD's and some friend HDD) ... I'm changing from a Asrock MB with cpu amd sempron 2300 socket A .. to a BiostarMB with a Sempron 2800+ Socket 754 64bits

[clocker]

Oh yeah.
You'll be much more successful with a full install after a change like that.

Good luck.