Upgrading, finally. Questions:

[p0lar_bear]

1. First, I fucking hate reinstalls. I've done it three times in the past year, twice when migrating to vista and back, and once again due to a virus. I really don't want to do it again. Would it be possible to install all of the drivers for the new machine's hardware on my computer and simply put the hard drive in the new one? Would I encounter any problems?

2. I'm also thinking of upgrading to Vista on this new box since it'll have the horsepower. My school sells Vista Ultimate Upgrade packs wicked cheap. I remember hearing something about Vista actually invalidating your WinXP key when upgrading that way; :google: searching the matter raised more questions than answered them. Does it actually make my copy of XP null and void, or was that just a rumor based on a section of the EULA (which apparently is in previous Windows Upgrade packs)?

[Cortexian]

1. You would need to save all of your preferred drivers to a drive other than the one you're installing Windows to. Or burn a DVD/CD with the driver software you need/want to use.

2. Don't upgrade, upgrades almost always come out with SOMETHING out of place, missing, corrupted, etc, etc... Upgrading causes more trouble than it's worth most of the time, the easiest way to install a new OS is to pop in the OS disk and boot from disk. Format the drive from within the Windows installer and proceed with a clean (Advanced) installation, if you're connected to the internet a lot of your "default" drivers will be downloaded and installed automatically. I also suggest that you get the Windows 7 RTM, this close to release you can just renew your trial period until it's released and then enter your product key when you purchase the OS. This will undoubtedly keep your XP key intact.

[Bodzilla]

no vista!

windows 7 that shit son!

[paladin]

no vista!

windows 7 that shit son!

werd :golfclap:

[Kornman00]

iawtp

[Ganon]

iaawtp

[flibitijibibo]

Holy shit. No way. What will happen to the original p0lar_pc?

1. Depending on what hardware it is you need drivers for, you might be better off just uninstalling the drivers for your old crap, then installing the new drivers on the new crap (did this for my X-Fi). I would bite the bullet and reinstall though, because of #2.
2. It does not invalidate your XP key. However, you really ought to go for Win7. You can probably get a 64 bit version of Home Premium/Professional for $30 here (http://www.win741.com/) if your school's on their list.

[Amit]

1. You would need to save all of your preferred drivers to a drive other than the one you're installing Windows to. Or burn a DVD/CD with the driver software you need/want to use.

2. Don't upgrade, upgrades almost always come out with SOMETHING out of place, missing, corrupted, etc, etc... Upgrading causes more trouble than it's worth most of the time, the easiest way to install a new OS is to pop in the OS disk and boot from disk. Format the drive from within the Windows installer and proceed with a clean (Advanced) installation, if you're connected to the internet a lot of your "default" drivers will be downloaded and installed automatically. I also suggest that you get the Windows 7 RTM, this close to release you can just renew your trial period until it's released and then enter your product key when you purchase the OS. This will undoubtedly keep your XP key intact.

I highly agree with this method.

[p0lar_bear]

Would I be able to run Windows 7 decently, as well as, say, TF2? Mayhaps Left 4 Dead?

This new machine currently has a Pentium 4 Prescott at 3 GHZ, 2 gigs of DDR400, no hard drive, and some shit video card (TNT2 lololololololol :downsgun:) I'll be replacing with an ATI x1050 I'm getting from someone via mail. I can salvage my main disk (will probably end up ghosting it and then copying files later).

[Rook]

Would I be able to run Windows 7 decently

If you were expecting to run Vista you can run 7 easily.

[TheGhost]

Ughh put Windows 7 on, I don't know why you would do anything else. And do a clean install, it only takes like 3 hrs to get everything back, and your machine will be much healthier.

[p0lar_bear]

Ughh put Windows 7 on, I don't know why you would do anything else. And do a clean install, it only takes like 3 hrs to get everything back, and your machine will be much healthier.

My biggest gripe with full reinstalls is the fact that I always leave myself with a backup folder which leaves me saying "oh yeah i need to go through that sometime" and I never fucking do. And if I outright delete it there's always something I ended up needing off of it.

Seriously, I have like 3 ghost images on my external HDD from when I reinstalled the last times. Have yet to actually go through them. %-)

[Cortexian]

This is why I have a dedicated OS/Programs disk and then a RAID 1 array for media/file storage. Never need to worry about back ups, just reformat the OS drive and I'm good to go since most programs need to be reinstalled anyways.

[Warsaw]

^This.

I presently have a 750GB hard drive that serves as the place where I keep all my documents, pictures, pr0n downloads, and Steam. My 200GB is where Windows installs and where I install games and other registry-dependent applications. Then I've got a lone 60GB IDE, which is where OSX the alternate OS goes.