Hard drive and new comp.

[chippr10jones]

Hey I was wondering if you can have a whole new motherboard/cpu, and all that and then put a hard drive in with that with out formatting it or anything, so i can still use the windows on there. because i dont have the installation cd

[JPMiller]

You technically can but you are asking for a whole slew of headaches!
I have been able to successfully do what you propose but have always ended up reformatting eventually anyway due to driver problems and lockups and blue screens.
If you need to do it because you have to backup data first then yes you can probably manage to swap without totally harking up the harddrive......but I would backup everything first and then format and borrow a freinds cd of your OS and just use your original windows key to enable it.
Belarc advisor will list your serial for you.
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

[yeadon563]

Yes u should be able to do that. I've done it twice in my life, and it worked well. The lastest one was an XP system.


There are some who claim a clean install is the way to go.

HTH
Yeadon563

[cbuddha42]

your really asking for it if you switch mobo without re-installing, you might be fine but chances are you'll start seeing blue screens all the time

[JPMiller]

A clean install IS the way to go!
No offense yeadon563 ( ), but I know without a doubt it is always better to do a clean install because even an expert has trouble removing old drivers and leftover remnants of mobo specific software and settings.
All OS's are not well suited to major hardware changes after being installed with original equipment because they suit themselves to the Equipment in many different ways that are not easily undone or changed. It is very possible that someone can swap mobos or swap a hardrive into another system and have no discernible problems with the upgrade....but 9 times out of 10 you will have undesirable consequences because of it.
Please do a backup of your important data, otherwise you may end up starting from scratch and losing alot of effort and time!