reinstall, or REPAIR Win 2K with new components...

[KuriousJorj]

I think I know the answer to this, but am hoping I'm wrong...

I've recently decided to replace my board/CPU/RAM, and video card...

But yes, I'd like to keep my system hard drive, WITHOUT re-formatting and reinstalling everything (including the OS)... So I need to do this without any resulting driver and/or registry conflicts...

Now, what if I UN-install as many drivers and devices as possible, replace everything with the new hardware, then reinstall all the new drivers for the board, card, etc... And also, if necessary, run a REPAIR of Win 2K...

Would that give me a clean, "like-fresh" install of my OS and programs, without having to actually reformat and reinstall it and lose my settings and programs and so on?


thanks!

 

[georgewel]

Best to reinstall. But you might just buy a small hard disk drive and install on this new drive and use the old drive as a slave where you could then move some programs and data to where you want. I have tried to do the things you asked and have been successful however it took alot of time.

 

[KuriousJorj]

"I have tried to do the things you asked and have been successful however it took alot of time."

But wouldn't I have to do that anyhow, (plus alot more) if I reformat/reinstall? Because then, I'd have to get all the updates, as well as reinstall all my programs... On top of installing all the drivers, changing settings (of windows, and my video editing software)...

Or am I asking for trouble going that route?

thanks!

 

[bcastner]

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=249694

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/install/other/motherboard/win2k.htm

 

[BaudKarma]

It can't hurt to try swapping things out without doing a OS reinstall, assuming you've got everyhing vital backed up beforehand. Whether it'll work or not depends on how different your old system and new system are.

The biggest danger is that Windows will get halfway through installing drivers and settings for the new system and then crash, leaving you with a hard drive that won't boot up under either system. That's why you want to back your critical data up before you start.

I try not to let my ignorance prevent me from offering a strong opinion.

 

[KuriousJorj]

After looking over the provided links, I'm definitely going to at least try to uninstall ALL drivers and hardware, then switch everything and do a "Win 2K repair" to force the OS to detect everything anew...

Looks like from the sources on those pages, this is definitely doable, and would save me ALOT of time, instead of reinstalling everything...

thanks gents!