New system, new Windows?

[OVS]

I'm about to renew my system; new mothboard, chip, graphics card, basically
everything minus a new Harddrive.

I've heard that when renewing hardware such as motherboards it's
recommended to format the drive and clean install a new Windows XP.

My harddrive is 80% full (160MB), and in 3 partions. Two partitions for
files and one where Windows XP resides (C. Is it possible to install a
new motherboard and only format my c: partition and leave the two other
partitions as they are. Will this cause any conflicts or problems?

Thanks
Oz

 

[Tom Porterfield]

I'm about to renew my system; new mothboard, chip, graphics card, basically
everything minus a new Harddrive.

I've heard that when renewing hardware such as motherboards it's
recommended to format the drive and clean install a new Windows XP.

My harddrive is 80% full (160MB), and in 3 partions. Two partitions for
files and one where Windows XP resides (C. Is it possible to install a
new motherboard and only format my c: partition and leave the two other
partitions as they are. Will this cause any conflicts or problems?

No problem at all. You may want to try a repair install first (install
XP over the top of the current install). In many instances that is
enough to get things working properly with a new MB.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP MCE
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.

 

[Guest]

yes, it is very easy to do it that way. beforehand make sure you have enough
disk space available on the c: partition. I try to reserve at least 6 gbs.
for XP PRO, SP2.
Also drag everything you want to save off to another partition. I always
keep my important data on a separate drive partition anyway just in case I
want to do an emergency reformat.

 

[OVS]

No problem at all. You may want to try a repair install first (install
XP over the top of the current install). In many instances that is
enough to get things working properly with a new MB.

Thanks Tom, its a relief to hear, I wasn't looking forward to backing up
100GB of data onto CDR.

Earler figure should have been 160GB not 160MB(!)

Thanks again

 

[OVS]

yes, it is very easy to do it that way. beforehand make sure you have enough
disk space available on the c: partition. I try to reserve at least 6 gbs.
for XP PRO, SP2.
Also drag everything you want to save off to another partition. I always
keep my important data on a separate drive partition anyway just in case I
want to do an emergency reformat.
:

My only problem now is that I had stupidly made my c: partition
unneccesarily big, 40GB. Its not too much of a problem because I may be
able to fit everything into the other partitions(may have to delete a few
not so important files).

If not, I'm guessing something like Partition magic can take some of the
GBs and pass it onto my data partitions?

 

[Guest]

personally I would recommend the following : fdisk the entire drive after
data backup. allocate a small portion of disk space; 6-10 gbs. for OS.
partition remaining space according to your needs. if you do right to start
with, you will thank yourself later. as for partition magic, I have never
used it, but a lot of people in the newsgroup recommend it. I might try it if
I had a copy, but I can't see paying for something I can do myself.

 

[OVS]

personally I would recommend the following : fdisk the entire drive after
data backup. allocate a small portion of disk space; 6-10 gbs. for OS.
partition remaining space according to your needs. if you do right to start
with, you will thank yourself later. as for partition magic, I have never
used it, but a lot of people in the newsgroup recommend it. I might try it if
I had a copy, but I can't see paying for something I can do myself.

Thanks for the reply websifter. I think I will do as you noted if I get a
new drive, but I don't have the patience to backup 100GB at the moment.
Wish I had original left only 6GB for windows.

thanks
Oz

 

[Guest]

that is a lot of cd burning and I suspect you are anxious to get that new
board up and running. If you have another computer to drag files onto it
would help. If not, you can add another drive later and still not have to
reformat . If I had a large amount of disk space myself, I would like to
reserve 40 g for c: Who knows what they are going to need for "longhorn".
I've heard up to 10 g or more. also if you install xp make sure to install it
to c: otherwise windows might try to install it wherever it wants.

 

[Rock]

Thanks Tom, its a relief to hear, I wasn't looking forward to backing up
100GB of data onto CDR.

Earler figure should have been 160GB not 160MB(!)

Thanks again

Make sure you have a backup of important data. Even though a repair
install _should_ retain data and accounts things can go wrong and they
generally seem to have a habit of going wrong when you are not prepared
for it. Remember data loss is not a matter of if but when.

See this link for info on doing a repair install. You may have to
reactivate windows.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

 

[Ron Martell]

personally I would recommend the following : fdisk the entire drive after
data backup. allocate a small portion of disk space; 6-10 gbs. for OS.
partition remaining space according to your needs. if you do right to start
with, you will thank yourself later. as for partition magic, I have never
used it, but a lot of people in the newsgroup recommend it. I might try it if
I had a copy, but I can't see paying for something I can do myself.

Without Partition Magic or a comparable utility you cannot make
non-destructive changes to the existing partitions. That is the
beauty of these programs. You can resize existing partitions without
losing their contents, something that is impossible to do with FDISK
or Diskpart.

Partition Magic can often be found at a very good price on eBay.

A comparable utility is BootItNG from www.bootitng.com
It is priced much lower than Partition Magic and has a 30 day fully
functioning free evaluation period.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I'm about to renew my system; new mothboard, chip, graphics card,
basically everything minus a new Harddrive.

I've heard that when renewing hardware such as motherboards it's
recommended to format the drive and clean install a new Windows XP.

My harddrive is 80% full (160MB), and in 3 partions. Two partitions
for files and one where Windows XP resides (C. Is it possible to
install a new motherboard and only format my c: partition and leave
the two other partitions as they are. Will this cause any conflicts
or problems?

Thanks
Oz

Normally, and assuming a retail license (many OEM installations
and licenses are not transferable to a new motherboard - check yours
before starting), unless the new motherboard is virtually identical
(same chipset, same IDE controllers, same BIOS version, etc.) to the
one on which the WinXP installation was originally performed, you'll
need to perform a repair (a.k.a. in-place upgrade) installation, at
the very least:

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

The "why" is quite simple, really, and has nothing to do with
licensing issues, per se; it's a purely technical matter, at this
point. You've pulled the proverbial hardware rug out from under the
OS. (If you don't like -- or get -- the rug analogy, think of it as
picking up a Cape Cod style home and then setting it down onto a Ranch
style foundation. It just isn't going to fit.) WinXP, like Win2K
before it, is not nearly as "promiscuous" as Win9x when it comes to
accepting any old hardware configuration you throw at it. On
installation it "tailors" itself to the specific hardware found. This
is one of the reasons that the entire WinNT/2K/XP OS family is so much
more stable than the Win9x group.

As always when undertaking such a significant change, back up any
important data before starting.

This will also probably require re-activation, unless you have a
Volume Licensed version of WinXP Pro installed. If it's been more
than 120 days since you last activated that specific Product Key,
you'll most likely be able to activate via the internet without
problem. If it's been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone
call.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Thanks Tom, its a relief to hear, I wasn't looking forward to
backing
up 100GB of data onto CDR.

You should back up any important data, anyway. Things do
sometimes go wrong.
--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Michael Stevens]

I'm about to renew my system; new mothboard, chip, graphics card,
basically everything minus a new Harddrive.

I've heard that when renewing hardware such as motherboards it's
recommended to format the drive and clean install a new Windows XP.

My harddrive is 80% full (160MB), and in 3 partions. Two partitions
for files and one where Windows XP resides (C. Is it possible to
install a new motherboard and only format my c: partition and leave
the two other partitions as they are. Will this cause any conflicts
or problems?

Thanks
Oz

Click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into the address box
if using the web based newsgroup.
Move XP to new hardware.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Alex Nichol]

I'm about to renew my system; new mothboard, chip, graphics card, basically
everything minus a new Harddrive.

I've heard that when renewing hardware such as motherboards it's
recommended to format the drive and clean install a new Windows XP.

My harddrive is 80% full (160MB), and in 3 partions. Two partitions for
files and one where Windows XP resides (C. Is it possible to install a
new motherboard and only format my c: partition and leave the two other
partitions as they are.

What I would do in the first instance is to do a repair reinstall.
Immediately you have the machine ready , power on and enter BIOS to set
date and time, make sure disks are detected; and Set the BIOS to boot CD
before Hard disk. Then boot the XP CD, start Setup (do not take
'Repair' at this stage), then after the license agreement take 'Repair
Installation'. This will retain your existing software installations
and most settings. But Updates will have to be run again, especially
SP1; I would get a CD of SP2 to run immediately the installation is up
and running

It is important to activate the basic XP Firewall before you ever
connect to the net to get the patches, so as to be protected against
things like the BLAST worm.

This should retain your activation status, though if you have never
registered you may have the setup suggest it now (don't bother). . You
may nevertheless find you have made so many changes that you need to
activate again by phoning in,

Always back up essential data before doing any major system operation
like this, if you are still in a position to do so