Pre-installed OS and new hardware

[matt 92]

Hey,

Last year i got a new packard bell computer, ready built. It came with Vista basic pre-installed, so i didn't get a disk with vista on. Now i am planning to upgrade my motherboard and put in a graphics card (currently running on integrated graphics i think?) However i have read that you may have to install new drivers when you change the mother board, or even re install the OS. As mine came pre-installed, can i still format my harddrive or will it completely remove my OS. Since i don't have a disk with it on, if it it completely removed it i would be kinda stuck.

sorry about the lack of information, but i'm not very knowledgeable on this subject as you can probably tell but any help would be really appreciated.

 

[manojgj]

if you upgrading you mother board , its good to have a fresh installation, for that you must need vista disk ,,
if you format you hard drive it will also remove your OS(formatting is a process of erasing your hard-disk , so it also erase all the contents in it)

if money is not your problem try to get vista or windows 7 (go for home premium at-least bcz many advanced features wont work with basic edition)

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare/default.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare/versions.aspx