Advice needed for data preservation with new build

[wambulance]

Ok, new components arrived in the mail today. I'll be swapping out the mobo, RAM, and cpu. I will be using the same hard drives, but want to preserve some data. First let me describe the layout.

The two SATA hdd I have are a 250GB C: that is right now the primary drive which boots to Windows XP, and a 500GB D: which is used for backup and storage (i.e. zips, pictures, movies, text documents and scans, etc.). The D: drive doesn't have any applications installed on it, it is just for storage.

Now, I know that with a new mobo and/or cpu people usually recommend doing a clean install with a fresh format, and I agree. This is the method I use msot of the time. I have, in the past, just put in a new mobo/cpu and booted to the installed OS which was XP. It found new devices etc and afterwards, appeared to work just fine without a new install. Perhaps I was lucky, but to me this seems improper and even if it does work, is going to leave a messy registry and install at best. So, I've decided to take the route I normally do and do a fresh install on a formatted drive.

So, I backed up all the data from D: to C: and my NAS (yes, D: is the 500GB but there wasn't much on it). I plan to use D: as the primary drive for a new XP install. Now, here's the issue that I want some advice with; there is a lot of data and installed applications on C: Much of it I can do without, some of it I cannot. Sorting through it to back up everything I need it would be very time consuming, and I'd likely miss things anyway as I've usually found that I forgot to back up something and discovered this only when I needed to use it. I do not want to back up the entire drive. It's not an option.

But since I'm itching to build this new system, here's my question; if I leave C: alone and install to D:, will I be able to run applications from the drive under the previous install? I know I can access data and move files at my leisure, but will I be able to use the applications that are installed for the previous install of XP?

Thanks in advance.

[Steve R Jones]

Nope. No can do. All the apps on C wrote hundreds of entries to the registry....You'd have to boot off C to load the reg....

Quote:

But since I'm itching to build this new system

Just find some way to get past this little issue

[wambulance]

Doh! That's right, what am I thinking?

Well, I did find a way to use the same OS install on a new mobo and such, MS even has a page on it which is here;

You receive a Stop 0x0000007B error after you move the Windows XP system disk to another computer

but I want the larger drive to be where the OS goes so it's not really worth considering that.

Ok, I'll just keep the C: drive with the files on it and do a fresh install on D:, and just copy files over when and if I need them.

[wambulance]

Hmm, well I did D: as the main drive and put C: as the back up (now C: is D: and vice versa).

I ran WoW on the secondary drive Pleasantly surprised heh.