I am installing a new mobo (P5N32E Sli Plus) CPU (E6700) and RAM (Corsair TwinX XMS DDR2 6400C4) into my system later this week.

I was planning on simply connecting my old hard drive with the OS on it and firing it up.

I do have a slight nagging feeling in the back of my mind about this.

I don't know of any reason not to do this but I also don't know much about pc's so may well be missing something obvious, and don't want to ruin all or any of the new parts!

Please can someone advise as to whether what I plan to do is fine or foolish?

Thanks

i strongly suggest you format the drive and do a clean os install. your old files on hdd may be conflicting with the new mobo etc (chipset drivers etc etc)

Thanks for the advice.

Having googled the problem it seems that there is the option of doing a 'repair' install of XP that only replaces the OS files and leaves personal files intact.

Can anyone who has done this tell me their experiences of the process- was it successful?

Best bet is to do a clean install.

just do a clean install for best performance and a smaller chance of having any issues

try it, you may get the blue screen of death but you won't damage any hardware. then if you need to do a clean install no biggie.

If the new MB uses the same chip set, you will have a chance with the repair. If not you may spend more time trying to remove the conflicting drivers, and may never work.

If you are going to attempt this. Un-install the chipset drivers prior to installing the new MB. Do it as the last thing before powering down. Then soon as it comes up install the chipset drivers. Then check to see what is broken. You may be forced to do a repair before you can install the drivers set.

Good luck odds are against you.

It may work, but even if it does you may get stability problems.

Best bet is just to copy your user data out to a directory on the hard drive to protect it and then copy it back. Not really that hard to do.

The method i use is to boot win xp in safe mode, remove from device manager all chipset specific drivers, then reboot for a repair xp installation. Did it many times as i am responsible for the maintenance of friends and family members pcs. Only problem i had once was that i had not written down my xp key and the installation kept asking for it. Any other key i had did not work. It happened only once but it would be safer to just retrieve the key before any other procedure. Of course, BACKUP FIRST! After the installation, install new drivers (chipset first, vga second. All the rest can wait) and then perform a Win XP update. You can use Autopatcher XP to save time and hassle. Good luck!

Thanks everyone.

I've decided on the safe option of formatting followed by a fresh install.

smart move