Do I need to format?

[Selenus]

Hey peeps!

Changing all my components apart from HDD and PSU, will I need to format the HDD and do a fresh windows install, or will it suffice to just uninstall all sorts of drivers and install the appropriate ones?

 

[welshdragon]

I would take this opportunity to do a fresh install, it will be better and more stable.

 

[pastymuncher]

Always advisable to do a clean install in these circumstances.

 

[02goswej]

Fresh Install. Doesn't it just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, logging into that nice clean desktop!

^_^

/Johnathan

 

[beefybarn]

Definetly a clean install, gets rid of all that junk thats been there for months.

 

[Yakyb]

no reason not to

but im of the camp of reinstall every 3 months or so regardless

 

[franco_22]

Fresh install, gets rid of all your old motherboard drivers.

 

[Frozennova]

If your changing chipsets then yes, if not then its advisable but not neccesary

 

[Admiral Huddy]

but im of the camp of reinstall every 3 months or so regardless

Seems rather drastic. If you keep good system management then there is no need to do this. Each to his own

 

[honosuseri]

A clean install is advisable. However do you need to keep any files? If you format the HDD they will be deleted.

Easiest way would obviously be to buy a new HDD, install windows to it then import files over you want from the old one then format the old HDD to clear it for further use.

Depending how much free space you have left you can create an extra partition. This basically makes the single HDD into two. You can move your files you want to this second partition and then let windows format the first partition during setup. Once the OS is installed you can copy back what you want to the first partition

Hope this helps