Please advise on re-installation.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Royston Tin
  • Start date Start date
R

Royston Tin

Hi,

I run WinXP SP2 on a 32 bit system. The computer is running quite well,
and I have images of my main drive which holds the System partition, on
another hard drive.

I now propose to upgrade to a 64 bit system and have purchased the
necessary components.

Will you please tell me what is the best practice these days:-
Should I simply install my present main drive onto the new motherboard
and hope that everything will run as before?
Or should I Install a new clean hard drive onto the new motherboard, and
use software to transfer all the partitions and files from the present
main drive onto the new drive?
Or should I do a clean re-install of everything onto the new hard drive,
on the new motherboard?

Your advice would be much appreciated, especially if you could give
brief reasons for your recommendations.

Royston.
 
Changing a Motherboard or Moving a Hard Drive with XP Installed
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Michael Stevens]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Hi,
|
| I run WinXP SP2 on a 32 bit system. The computer is running quite well,
| and I have images of my main drive which holds the System partition, on
| another hard drive.
|
| I now propose to upgrade to a 64 bit system and have purchased the
| necessary components.
|
| Will you please tell me what is the best practice these days:-
| Should I simply install my present main drive onto the new motherboard
| and hope that everything will run as before?
| Or should I Install a new clean hard drive onto the new motherboard, and
| use software to transfer all the partitions and files from the present
| main drive onto the new drive?
| Or should I do a clean re-install of everything onto the new hard drive,
| on the new motherboard?
|
| Your advice would be much appreciated, especially if you could give
| brief reasons for your recommendations.
|
| Royston.
 
Royston Tin said:
Hi,

I run WinXP SP2 on a 32 bit system. The computer is running quite well,
and I have images of my main drive which holds the System partition, on
another hard drive.

I now propose to upgrade to a 64 bit system and have purchased the
necessary components.

Will you please tell me what is the best practice these days:-
Should I simply install my present main drive onto the new motherboard
and hope that everything will run as before?
Or should I Install a new clean hard drive onto the new motherboard, and
use software to transfer all the partitions and files from the present
main drive onto the new drive?
Or should I do a clean re-install of everything onto the new hard drive,
on the new motherboard?

Your advice would be much appreciated, especially if you could give
brief reasons for your recommendations.

Royston.
Click to expand...

Whether you install your existing hard drive or you copy that data to a new
drive, you're going to be in the same situation. No difference, except it's
a newer drive. At that point, you'd probably need to do a repair install of
XP to get all the motherboard drivers installed. Then see if everything runs
the way you want it to. It may work fine.

However, if you've got the time and skills, a new install would probably be
a better choice. You'd not only be installing a fresh copy of the OS with
just the drivers and software you need, but you'd also be getting rid of
whatever accumulated junk you have on your old hard drive. And if things
start acting weird at that point, you're in a better position for
troubleshooting.

It's a 50/50 kind of thing. No real right or wrong. Me, I'd probably do
both -- install the old drive and update, then install a new drive, install
XP in a dual boot, and see which is better. Just for the fun of it.
 
Whether you install your existing hard drive or you copy that data to a new
drive, you're going to be in the same situation. No difference, except it's
a newer drive. At that point, you'd probably need to do a repair install of
XP to get all the motherboard drivers installed. Then see if everything runs
the way you want it to. It may work fine.

However, if you've got the time and skills, a new install would probably be
a better choice. You'd not only be installing a fresh copy of the OS with
just the drivers and software you need, but you'd also be getting rid of
whatever accumulated junk you have on your old hard drive. And if things
start acting weird at that point, you're in a better position for
troubleshooting.

It's a 50/50 kind of thing. No real right or wrong. Me, I'd probably do
both -- install the old drive and update, then install a new drive, install
XP in a dual boot, and see which is better. Just for the fun of it.
Click to expand...
Many thanks to all who responded with such useful advice.

Royston.
 
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