Upgrade Time: New OS, Bios, Raid-0 Drivers, Format

[drew8765]

I would like to upgrade my computer and I figure doing it in one fell swoop would be a good plan.
Here are the activities that I plan on doing:

0. Backup vital documents
1. Upgrade my motherboard bios from floppy disk (My motherboard is a ABIT-KT7 RAID)
2. Upgrade my raid controller bios/drivers from floppy disk
3. Reset or modify bios settings (as needed)
4. Format my existing raid-0 array
5. Install WindowsXP Pro from CD (Once installed, the raid array will be the boot drive)
6. Upgrade drivers (soundcard, video, etc)
7. Re-install application sofware
8. Backup my system


Here are my questions:

A. In what order must these items be performed?
Or, if order doesn't matter, please recommend an optimum order.
(I realize that 6 and 7 will need to be after 5)

B. Are there any steps that I have left off the list?

C. Are there any tips or tricks to help this go smoothly? (especially regarding item 3)

D. Do I need to re-build the raid-0 array?

I know that this is a fairly broad question, but maybe someone out there
(who does this alot) might have a checklist or guide or something they would be able to share.

Also, I am fairly experienced when it comes to computers, but when it comes to doing things
that could totally hose my system (example: upgrading bios) - I turn to the experts. Also,
if there is any other info that I need to provide, just let me know.

Thanks.

 

[GAZZA]

What OS are you upgrading from to XP ?

Also what I would do personally is to image my partition should be possibility that something would go wrong, then I would at least be able to return back to my starting point. I use Norton Ghost to image.

What you have listed is good.

Main bios will probably have the raid controller bios built into the update.

Once you have reconfigured your bios after the update change the boot device to cdrom and start the install from there, provided you have a bootable cd

You shouldn't have to rebuild your array.

If you've never used win2k/XP before then you might need the highpoint drivers on a floppy disk just incase XP doesn't have a generic driver on the cd, it will ask you to select F6 to install a raid driver.

 

[drew8765]

I am currently running WindowsME.

 

[GAZZA]

Ouch , ok well it sounds like you've thought this through pretty thoroughly so I'd say your all set to go.
Just make sure you make a good back up of your data in any event

 

[WarCon]

Yeah, I think the order you gave is a good route. Only thing I see left out is updating. I tend to do that before I install my software, so I don't have problems with my virus scanner interfering with any of the patches/updates from microsoft. Then I install my virus scanner and update it. I also don't install software that I may or may not use in the future before I backup/ghost my install. Saves a few CD's and the software is no biggie to install later.

 

[drew8765]

Good point about installing applications after backup.
However, I'll probably end up backing up to one of my other hard drives (not part of the raid array), so size shouldn't be much of an issue.