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Reinstall xp with new hardware?

N

ncage

Golden Member
Does everyone usually reinstall windowx xp when they upgrade their system to prevent driver problems? I currently have an amd system and have a core2 system on the way but i really really don't want to reainstall. I have so many appllications and settings that is going to take me forever to rebuild my system. I have always reinstalled in the past but i don't want to this time. What do you guys think? Do you think you should always reinstall?

thanks,
ncage
 
Easy-peasy. Make sure you have a floppy driver disk for the SATA/RAID ports if needed. Uninstall all the AMD and chipset drivers and video drivers, and drivers for any other devices that you had to install drivers for but aren't "peripherals" like a printer. Make sure you either have on CD or have downloaded and saved to a temp folder, all the drivers you will need for the new system and any devices you'll need to install drivers for again. This step isn't even totally required, it just cleans the drivers off your hard drive so they aren't taking up space or having all sorts of unused drivers laying about.

Then do a Repair install. (Google search for details.) That will completely reset Windows to a fresh install state, all drivers reset to new install state, all Windows apps, and no updates will have been installed. However it leaves all your files, applications and non-Windows application settings intact. It's the next best thing to a complete wipe and reinstall, and arguably might not even be possible to tell the difference other than some files that might be lying around.
 
Lord Evermore's solution sounds like the best - good ol' repair install should do the trick, if it works how it sounds like it will. I've personally never used the repair install feature, but have just done a fresh install with each new build. Good luck!
 
Lord Evermore is correct, but lacking just a bit if you are not familiar with doing an installation repair in XP. This is the detail he is missing . . .

1. Boot from the installation CD (being prepared to hit F6 and supply the SATA floppy if you are using that type of HDD in the new configuration).

2. On the first screen, hit ENTER to start an installation. The second choice sounds like repair, but that is to take you to the Repair Console, which is not what you want. This is for doing simple little command-line repairs.

3. Screen next will be the EULA, and you hit F8 to accept it.

4. Screen next will notify you that you already have XP installed and give you the choice of hitting "R" to repair it, or ENTER to do a fresh install.

5. At this point, hit "R" and from there on in it looks just like a fresh installation.

6. During the final reboot, it may ask you to enter usernames. Leave them blank and go to the next step so that it will reuse your original user setup.

7. You will have to re-activate the operating system, and depending on how many things have changed it may require you to do it by phone.

8. In many cases, the automated phone process will work, but in the case that they say they can't activate it and transfer you to a human, just tell him that you fried your system and the motherboard, memory, and cpu had to be replaced. This is a legitimate reason under all licenses, whereas telling them that this is a major system upgrade may violate it depending on which version you have.
 
thanks guys. I never knew that the repair would pretty much put your system back to a state where it was pretty much a fresh install. No worries about activation. I have the highest level on msdn subscription so pretty much this software is free for me but as those of you know who have MSDN subscriptions (it isn't cheap).

 
whatever they made universal is only about 3K (not exactly cheap, unless you think about what it comes with)
 
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