Upgrading question...

[Kenrick]

So I'm thinking of basically gutting my rig and replacing everything but the case, drives, and power supply (ie new motherboard, CPU, video card, RAM).

Do I need to format the hard drive or anything?  Or can I just replace all the aforementioned parts and fire the PC back up, and all will be well?

Just formatted my hdd recently and I really don't want to go through that pain again. 

[Trippy]

Do I need to format the hard drive or anything?  Or can I just replace all the aforementioned parts and fire the PC back up, and all will be well?

Just formatted my hdd recently and I really don't want to go through that pain again. 

By "format" I'm assuming you mean reinstall Windows and the answer is maybe. The problem with that plan is that the drivers necessary for the proper functioning of your hardware will most likely not be installed and depending on how old your current system is you might have trouble booting. Even if it does work you'll still have drivers from your old system that you don't need which may cause subtle conflicts down the road. In other words it's probably better to reinstall Windows.

The other problem is that Windows will most likely complain that you are running an illegal copy since you are making too many hardware changes. You'll probably need to call Microsoft and tell them you want to transfer your Windows key to an entirely new machine (from Window's perspective).

[Engels]

There's a solution, however, if your OS doesn't like the new hardware:

Put the original OS cd in the drive, boot to it as if you were going to do a full reinstall, and at some point, the CD searches for existing copies of the OS. Then, select 'Repair' and what basically happens is that it strips all previous drivers and reinstalls all windows components with the new drivers. The benefit here is that it leaves everything else alone, such as all your installed programs.

Sometimes there's still the problem that Trippy alludes to, that the old drivers are sometimes not uninstalled and you have to go through and manually uninstall them, which in some cases can be a royal pain, but it sure as heck beats reinstalling over 90 gigs of installed games, or whatever it is you have on your current HD.

[Kenrick]

Good stuff, Eng.  I guess my main concern is the possibilty of actually damaging some of my data the first time I boot up post-upgrade.  I guess the easy solution to that would be to just back everything up first. :)

[Engels]

What type of data are you talking about? If its just files, like .mp3s or such, then I recommend reinstalling the OS on a new, separate hard drive, and then making the original one a slave. That way, you preserve your files on your original disk without having to worry about an install on an old OS configuration. If you don't want to buy a new HD, perhaps you can simply either burn them to DVD or buy a USB flash drive.

If on the other hand, the files you're talking about are installed programs, then you might still get away with running the programs off the old drive from a new one (as above), but you can get into issues with drive labled (C: vs D:) as well as some programs not running unless they are 'registered' on the new OS's registry.

To give an example, it used to be the case (not sure any more) that you could raw copy and paste the entire EQ folder from one HD to another and the thing would run just fine. I've not had the same luck with, say, EQ2, however. That one seems to have some tie-ins at the time of install and the thing wouldn't run from my old OS hard drive. I had to reinstall the whole thing on my new OS.

[Kenrick]

Hehe, luckily I quit EQ2 today.   

Mostly just talking about photos and mp3's.

I've just decided to back up all my files and start the new components with a freshly re-formatted hard drive.

[Viin]

I'd reformat. As a matter of practice I like to reformat my windows drive once a year or so. If yer smart you can use one harddrive dedicated to your windows and program files, with your My Documents and games and mp3's on another drive. I don't often have to reinstall my games when I redo windows unless I'm upgrading to a different version. Use 'File and Settings transfer wizard' to save a backup of what icons are on your desktop, etc.

On a related note, has anyone else noticed that their internet connection is much faster after reinstalling windows? After a month or two of a reinstall it's back down to it's slow 'normal' levels (at least for me). When I first reinstall windows I get much faster download speeds via FTP and HTTP than I do a month or two later.

[Glazius]

Do I need to format the hard drive or anything?  Or can I just replace all the aforementioned parts and fire the PC back up, and all will be well?

Just formatted my hdd recently and I really don't want to go through that pain again. 

By "format" I'm assuming you mean reinstall Windows and the answer is maybe. The problem with that plan is that the drivers necessary for the proper functioning of your hardware will most likely not be installed and depending on how old your current system is you might have trouble booting. Even if it does work you'll still have drivers from your old system that you don't need which may cause subtle conflicts down the road. In other words it's probably better to reinstall Windows.

Even how old your current system is might not matter. I know upgrading from one ASUS motherboard to another one Windows threw up on me, refusing to boot at all because, as it turns out, my HDD interface drivers were incompatible with the new motherboard.

Of course, the message telling me this was in hex code, on a blue screen with "CRITICAL SYSTEM ERROR" in large white unfriendly letters, so I was kinda scared shitless until I got to another comp and looked up the error message.

--GF

[Kenrick]

I'm definitely going to reformat at this point... and I do try to do that about annually.  It just sucks that I did it in August!

On one rather nifty note... I placed my order last night not 1 minute too soon.  When the transaction was complete, I went back to look over my video card specs/reviews/etc. one more time... and it was now listed as out of stock!  I apparently got the very last one, because it has processed and shipped.  :-D

[Tale]

Have you got space and finances to add another hard drive? Not a big one, just a new one. You can get some serious gigabytes for very low cost at the moment and instead of reformatting the old drive, you could use the new drive as your C: drive and the old drive as a slave. That way you get a (presumably faster technology) new drive to run Windows and other key applications on your new motherboard, and you don't mess with the data on your old drive.

[Strazos]

Partitions are your friend.

[Kenrick]

Have you got space and finances to add another hard drive? Not a big one, just a new one. You can get some serious gigabytes for very low cost at the moment and instead of reformatting the old drive, you could use the new drive as your C: drive and the old drive as a slave. That way you get a (presumably faster technology) new drive to run Windows and other key applications on your new motherboard, and you don't mess with the data on your old drive.

I'm running a 160gb SATA 1.5mb/s right now as my only hdd, but I'll be adding a 250gb SATA 3.0mb/s sometime in the near future. Just not in this round of purchases.

[Ironwood]

Partitions are your friend.

Partitions are the Devil.

[Yegolev]

Partitions are your friend.

Partitions are the Devil.

DOS/NT partitions are the debbil.

[Viin]

Partitions just rob you of accessing speed - I don't like them either.

[Kenrick]

But then can make one room feel like two...

[Strazos]

Partitions just rob you of accessing speed - I don't like them either.

You're losing, what, milliseconds? Much cheaper than buying entirely different drives for everything.

Also, too many HDDs hog up the IDE slots. Heck, I'm maxed out with 2 HDDs and 2 optical drives. If I wanted more stuff, I would have to swap some of my HDDs over to SATA...but I'm afraid something would get fucked up in the process.