I am going to be building a new P4 system this Christmas and I have a few questions. First, here are the specs... Abit IC7-Max3 Motherboard Pentium 4 3.0 GHz 800 MHz FSB Radeon 9800 Pro 1 GB (2x512MB) Corsair XMS PC3200 Low Latency Memory Aspire X-Superalien Full Tower w/ 500W Power Supply I am, however, keeping my old floppy drive, CD-RW drive, DVD-ROM and hard drive from my current HP. This is where my questions come in. Will I have to back up and reformat the hard drive then reinstall the operating system when I put it in the new computer? Also, will I need to install drivers for the motherboard before doing anything else or will everything be configured automatically? Will I need to find the drivers for the CD-RW and the DVD-ROM on the internet or will those be automatically found? Thank you all in advance for any help.

When you have built your new system you will find that the Hard Disk wont boot. This can be sorted by doing a repair install. This should install all the correct drivers for motherboard and CD/DVD and at the same time keeping all you files and settings from the previous installation. To do a repair install, boot from your CD and follow the intructions. Select the second repair option after the CD has identified the current installation. You do have a Windows XP CD? Win XP should find drivers for everything except the Video card. You can install them yourself once Windows is running, albeit in low res mode. You will probably have to re-activate the Windows installation. However if it is more than 90 days since the previous installation on the old computer, then it wont be a problem - just activate over the internet. If not you may have to make a phone call to Microsoft. Stuart

You will end up with double the registry entries. Old ones and the new ones. This does not lead to a stable system. I personally would reinstall from scratch. But then I believe MS desktop products should be reinstalled from scratch every two years. This is the only way to clean up registry bloat. But if you want to follow Stuart's suggestion then use SYSPREP before putting the drive in the new system. This puts the registry in a more raw state so new drivers etc can go in just fine. see here for more info on sysprep http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/itpro/deploying/introduction.asp

Stuart sounds as if he's experienced more than I in this and may have already given you the answer you seek. I admit up front that I don't know much about XP, but if it's anything like previous MS O/S's, this ~may~ possibly apply or help......... If not, others will state this and you can ignore it. Installing an old hard drive in a new machine; BEFORE you shut down that drive for the LAST time in the old machine. Open Regedit and navigate to the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum Right click on the Enum folder icon and choose Delete, OK on the confirm. Close out Regedit. Shut down windows and pull out the drive. What this does, is clear all the old hardware settings for the old machine. When you boot this drive as C: in the new machine , windows will run it's Hardware/PnP detector to find all your new hardware (mobo, controllers, etc.). Load the drivers as required , and your new machine should hum right along with the new chassis and all your familiar software. AND , , ,NO confusion about settings for equipment that isn't connected anymore, thus no double registry entries.

>> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum << Sadly Dan, this wont work with Windows XP. The registry entry doesnt exist. Nothing so simple with XP. The SYSPREP suggested by Wanderer is probably a better idea, but I have never used that method before. Stuart