roman793

Hi,

i was looking for some advice on a reinstall i am planning. I bought a prebuilt PC 2 years ago, but have been constantly upgrading it, here in order:

Graphics card:
Geforce MX 2 -> Radeon 9500pro

Power supply:
Generic 230W -> Enermax 350W

Sound:
On board sound-> Creative Audigy 2

Motherboard:
MSI build VIA for fujitsu siemens-> MS-6590 Kt6 Delta

Processor:
Athlon 1800+ -> 2800+

Memory:
512 DDR SDRAM -> 1GB Crucial PC3200 DDR

Cooling upgraded, case fans added.

Somehow, i have managed to do all this without having to reinstall XP (mainly because the new Motherboard is so similar to the old i suspect). But i guess its about time to do it, after 2 years and so many upgrades.

Before i upgrade i would like to buy a new hard disk, a SATA matrox diamond, and make it the new C:\ drive.

My question is, can i just take the old HDD out, put the new SATA one in its place, reinstall XP and once everything is up and running, put the old drive back in, configure it as a second HDD, and get all my data from it? What are the difficulties of that, bearing in mind its not a SATA capable drive? Will i have to back up to a removable medium anyway for safety?

Thanks in advance for any help!

R.

ps. just an afterthought, from experience, am i likely to see a dramatic perfomance improvement after a reinstall, bearing in mind so much has changed in the meantime?

BWX

You can always just "repair" the WinXP installation. I had to when I just upgraded my MB. I could not get my old install to boot, so I just reinstalled using the "repair" option.. ALL my data was saved and all I had to do was reset mt services the way I like them and install all my drivers. It worked great and is FAR less of a pain than totally reinstalling everything and getting it back to the way it was..

Remember, if you do reinstall, it is easy to export your IE favorites and OE mail amd address (if you use OE)book using import/ export wizard.

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Kgentatszu]

yup, same here, but i dont really recommend you doing that...cause i did a repair on my HDD after changing the mobo a few weeks ago....all the old files were there as usual BUT the thing is, i find that my stuff is not all that workable, some of them, i had to reinstall to get it working, and some are even worst, the applications seemed to crawl.....for an instance, before i changed the mobo, CPU-Z works fine and it would load for like 1.5 seconds, BUT after the new mobo, without reformatting of course, it would take the HDD 10seconds to load a single application......this also includes outlook express, word and so forth..............

BWX

Yeah- it's tricky to get it back to the way it was- I actually did though- you have to uninstall everything, especially the IDE controller drivers and all the devices related to the old setup.

You must remember to update windows and all the apps too.

A repair is a good way to get your info of fthe c-drive anyway- even if you format C: after that.

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MIG-31

i have just had to reinstall windows for my upgrade.

i have just gone from a cheapo mobo to a abit is7-e springdale with a p4 2.4 800fsb cpu (hyper-threading cpu)and ram had to take in-store to get install complete.it were due to 512mb osz ram were at fault that would not let the system stay booted up long enough.

but as for your sata drive you should have the instructions in the manual of the procedure to do so.if you have one!

but i think i would try the repair option first of all.

as you would see in my sig i have a 40gig hdd as backup.that is were i keep all my important files such as word/excel photos,system updates/drivers etc.and also a copy of my favourites so it is nice and easy to recall when needed.

which you do not loose with a format & reinstall of windows.

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BWX

Well what did they do? Replace the ram? If they didn't replace it- they did something that you could have done yourself.

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MIG-31

i know that but how are you supposed to know it were the ram at fault when it were the only stick of pc3200 i have.

so couldn't try that option for myself when just upgraded whole system to 800fsb which 266's don't support.

when i return the faulty ram and get a refund that will pay for the new module and diagnosis.

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Kgentatszu]

err.r...how do you uninstall all the unrelated drivers??? i mean previous AGP, mobo, sound drivers???
i dont think my HDD is working normally at all

BWX

Just uninstall all the IDE controller drivers in the hardware cp- then reboot. Or just install over top of them.. Also uninstall any chipset drivers form the old mb. reinstall drivers from new mb. My system is just like new after not even being able to boot from the HD after a MB switch. I didn't loose a thing and it only took me a few hours to update windows after the "repair" even my desktop visual style stayed. It was easy.

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MIG-31

just a second quote.

rang overclockers today to get a rma number.

i were advised to try again but this time try setting memory volt to 2.7 and bingo it works.now have 1024mb.

osz pc3200 don't work on stock speeds which i didn't know.

must say now i have everything up and running now there is a [SIZE=x-large]huge[/SIZE] difference in performance from last system.

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Kgentatszu]

i forgot which was which so...

johny! we WANT BENCHIES, WE WANT BENCHIES!

i bet you can beat mine, cause memory sucks!!!

BWX

4mb sdr memory does suck.

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Kgentatszu]

i meant my cheapO Apacer PC2100

MIG-31

.2002


2003



both with virtual sync off and high quality.

try later today with perfomance settings

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Kgentatszu]

i'm waiting........

MIG-31

there in post above not to good for now.

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