Is formatting drive C: good enough for installing a new mobo?

[Ionizer86]

I'm going to install a new mobo, CPU, and ram to replace my current stuff soon. My OS is on partition C: and so are the programs. Drives D: to F: are all for data. I'm going to back up the data to another network hard drive, but I don't see a need for me to format drives D: to F: since these are only data drives. Besides, it takes too long to transfer gigs of stuff back across the 100mbit lan.

I have progs and setup files on drive E: but I don't think any are registry related progs (just small stuff like wCPUID and stuff).

I'd just like the ok that I don't need for format my data partitions, correct?

 

[Squisher]

There is no need to format your data partions, and you might be able to install that new mobo without formatting C: Your mileage may vary, its worth a try.

 

[Howard]

Actually, if you don't feel like backing up data on your OS partition, just wipe the Program Files and Windows directories.

 

[Ionizer86]

I don't have any data on partition C: except for the bookmarked favorites, etc. All my data is safely away from the OS partition

Thanks for confirming what I thought All I have to do is wipe C: drive, install hardware, install OS, and install the progs from the setup files on E: again Of course, to play it safe, I highly recommend that all who take this "shortcut" still backup their data to a network drive, just in case

 

[Strawberrymom]

formating C will be the best back up your favorites and your outlook .pst fiel and any files in my documnets and your good to go

 

[JackMDS]

Unless it is an unusual Jump in OS (like from Win95 to Win XP) there is no reason to format any thing.

Before you take out the old Mobo, switch the Video Drivers to Standard PCI VGA. Make sure that you have the drivers for your peripheral available, and that you have a plain vanilla boot floppy, and give it a try.

If it does not work you can boot from floppy and format the C: part.

 

[benchmarq]

I've been through 3 different motherboard/CPU combinations and twice as many video cards, all without formatting my C: partition. The very good advice about switching video drivers to Standard PCI VGA mode will insure that you'll have video when you boot up the first time with the new hardware, but I figured I'd put this Plug-n-Pray stuff to the test, and it has saved me hours of reloading programs.

 

[HouRman]

I tried upgrading a 450 AMD K6-2 processor and mobo to a Soyo p4s Dragon Ultra and pentium 1.7ghz.

All I did was swap the motherboard without formating anything at all.

After solving a few driver issues I got everything to work and the best part.. we didn't need a windows CD.

We would have done a fresh boot but I lost my archived oem windows 98se CD which is what we both have been sharing the past 2 years. Sad ain't it May this be a reminder to never take your OS for granted because if something goes wrong I'll have to buy windows XP homely edition.

 

[Snapster]

All you need to do is:

1: Boot into Safe Mode and delete any files in \Windows\Inf\other\

2: delete the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum key

3: Install the motherboard

4: Boot up windows


The enum key stores all info about the hardware in your machine, deleting it forces windows to re-detect your hardware. Deleting the files in windows\inf\other should stop any issues you may have with drivers. Though it's recommended that you only do this if you have the relevant drivers available to re-install

 

[samgau]

I recently did that... swapped mobo/cpu/ram without nuking the os.. it redetected most things fine... except for the usb.. it would freeze on detecting the second usb controller.. new board has 2, old board had one... but it did work fine... I used it for a couple weeks then I eventually formatted the c and restarted from scratch...

 

[tjames214]

I'll share an experience I've had with updating the OS with new hardware. My friend had a P3-933 system which died due to a power spike. Anyways I brought over a GA-7DX AMD761-based motherboard / Athlon XP 1800+ / 256MB DDR PC2100 memory, so that he could get his system back up and working again. Anyways when the computer booted up, Windows XP Professional halted in error. I forgot what the error message was about but I tried booting in safe mode and it wouldn't work. I just put in a boot disk, switched over to the main partition (C:\) and deleted the windows directory (C:\WINXP). Then I booted up from the Windows XP Professional CD and did a full install into a new directory. The OS installed fine and the system worked. So YMMV. I switched my friend from an Intel based system to an AMD based system.

 

[tjames214]

By the way Snapster, what you mentioned looks interesting. I wonder if those techniques would have solved my friends setup. But his CPU was dead and we couldn't get into Windows XP anyways.

 

[Athlon4all]

You could delete just windows and program files, but it will get messy. Reformat C, and yes you can leave the data partitions alone, just reformat C and u'll be all set.