formatting harddrive required?

[PeterBateman]

i am wondering now that i am building my first pc , i want to take out and reuse my sata hd (maxtor 8mb 200gb) it has xp on it but its going to be going on different mobo. so should i format it first before i do a clean install? if yes how? or cant i (should i ) just re-install after i hook everything up?

 

[nobly]

Since you're switching mboards, you'll have to do a clean install of XP on a HDD. If you're reusing one, either wipe it before or just have the XP install quick format it for you (same thing).
I'd just let the install quick format it... save a few minutes.

 

[ThAtGEyE]

I had the same question...first time builder. I wish I could just transfer the old harddrive and everything would be fine.

 

[Cybercraig]

You can always remove all drivers & devices, shut down XP and do a repair build on a new PC. through XP. You will still be stuck with a lot of junk that accumulates on a hard drive that would be erased in a fresh format. I would definitely reformat though we all know what a pain it is.

 

[Dahak]

plug your hard drive into the mainboard and then when you boot up,make sure windows os disc is in cd drive and then just re-install windows.very simple.delete all partitions(if any)i like to put the operating system on a 20 gig partition and then i use windows to create more primary partitions and format in NTFS.oh and make sure your first boot device is set for cd-rom first than hd-0.ok.good luck.

 

[Codesmith]

Some chipsets are compatible enough for you to keep using your existing OS.

I have moved XP on a friends PC from VIA KT266a to KT133 to KT400 MB's without installing. She is still using the same OS I installed for her in 2001 or 2002.

I had similar luck between NF4 and NF2.

Also repair install sometimes will let you keep using your existing OS.

However if the chipsets are not identical then you often have some performance problems. My friend's KT400 system scores 25% lower than it should on memory bandwidth benchmarks, despite my having reinstalled the chipset drivers.

Really its best to do a clean install.

 

[baracuda73]

On the windows disk there is a utility called sysprep which will delete all driver registry info and require you to reinstall new driver when you put it in the new system. While this does work a format and reload is still best. If you need more info on sysprep just google it lots of good guides on using it.