On Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:34:05 +0100, "GT"
<ContactGT_remove_@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I have finally upgraded my Athlon 2400 system. I've had to do it in steps
>for budget reasons, so the new parts are on the way are: e6400, PT880 Ultra
>motherboard (using my existing 1.5GB DDR333 and IDE drive for now) and
>7600GS (passive / silent) PCI-i graphics card. Not a bad deal for £180 (all
>hardly used parts, from ebay).
>
>My question is, are there any clever tricks I can use to avoid re-installing
>windows? Perhaps remove all drivers using safe mode, then perform the switch
>over and boot to safe mode again?? Or who thinks its not even worth trying -
>different HAL etc?
>

There is no reason to believe a repair install or fresh
install is better than a PNP of the same OS install, except
that the PNP of same requires the ability to resolve
problems as you go along, and to boot the system far enough
for it to re-PNP in the first place. If/when the migrated
and re-PNPed installation is finished, it is, umm, finished-
works fine.

The clever trick is not necessarily removing drivers, it's
Googling for the directions to add generic IDE driver files
and registry entries to help it boot far enough to re-PNP.

Make a backup of your present HDD partition (but you were
doing this anyway because it's windws, right?) then you have
the option to gracefully revert back to the present state of
the drive if your attempt fails.