hi im just about to get a brand new proccessor and new motherboard and ram but im keeping the harddrive and graphics card and so on from my current computer. what i want to know is once i build up the new computer will i have to wipe fro hardrive and reinstall xp or will i just be able to put in the harddrive and access all my work and files as i can now?

You will either have to wipe your hard drive or (the easier solution) repair windows with the XP Boot CD. Just FYI, I am talking about the repair option from the XP setup menu....not the repair console. www.monkonline.tk

Like computingMonk said, the chance of you booting up with no problems is practically nil. If you're lucky a 'Repair' reinstall will get you going. If not, it will probably take a fresh install.

ham30, yup, man that just irritates the hell out of me that microsoft does things like that. You change out a couple pieces of hardware and then windows forces you to reinstall so you use/activate another of your licenses. Grrrrr! Well dr death, 8 licenses left. www.monkonline.tk

Dunno know if this will work for you. Try it before you change the mobo. Good luck. Please keep us posted thanks! i_XpUser

I can't stand it. Here is the procedure. Method to change mobo and/or cpu. You can but do it the right way.. (old system) pop in your XP cd.. go to this folder: support\tools\deploy.cab Make a new folder in your c:\ called Sysprep (Notice the capital in the sysprep) Extract the files from deploy.cab to c:\Sysprep Go to your new folder. Double click sysprep.exe make sure you have the "Shutdown" selected in the dropdown. Click the "reseal" button. NOW Dont do a darn thing. Let the computer shut down. This may take a few minutes.. Swap over your Motherboard and CPU. Start the system and you'll see the computer will start to boot into the new user mode. Have your cd key ready. now your all set. At the user section add a new user.. Not the same user name as you had before.. Enter the new user then log out.. Log into your old user name and you can now safly delete the "new" user you had to create http://computervitals.com/

"You change out a couple pieces of hardware and then windows forces you to reinstall..." You didn't just replace a few pieces of hardware... You just replaced the pc. When it comes right down to it the mobo is the pc. It doesn't matter what the case/tower says, if you change motherboards you no longer have a Dell/Compaq/E-Machine. You have a completely different rig. Yeah it kind of sucks but there are ways around it. Per has one great solution and if that doesn't suit you there is always Linux :) Hope this helps, Sandman