upgrading mobo and cpu...

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

I vaguely remember doing this upgrade in the past...but i seem to recall it messing with how it operated and had to reinstall windows/reformat. so if i go ahead with my planned upgrade...will i be able to keep all my settings/documents/etc. without reformatting?

also, will my UDMA HDDs (i have two 80 gigs) work with the new hard drive interfaces? (and which is the best option)

thanks for any help

[Hijacker]

What mobo/proc are you using currently?

Typically when you upgrade your motherboard, you need to reinstall your OS. It's a stability issue. If you don't reinstall, your OS tends to have frequent crashes and doesn't mesh well due to changes in the BIOS.

I'm not sure what spec your HDDs are. I have a feeling they're probably IDE drives. Most mobo manufacturers are still leaving IDE ports on the boards, but upgrading to larger capacity SATA drives is pretty cheap. I can pick up a reputable 500gig SATA drive for fairly inexpensive these days. SATA is definitely the best way to go currently. The transfer speed is great, and the aerial density of the platters has gotten cheap enough to make them affordable. Plus it's the new defacto standard

If you want to save your settings and documents, back them up. Either on a CD or put them on a backup hard drive that won't be formatted in the forseeable future.

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

that's what i needed to know! thanks!