Upgrade my PC but keep my hard drive game installs?

[compboyo]

I want to upgrade my PC.

I will buy new:

mobo
GPU
RAM
CPU

But I will keep my same hard drive.

I have 1tb Hard drive split like

100gb- win xp
100gb- win 7
800gb- storage

So. I will wipe clean the 2x100gb drives. And recreate them with new system right. I have all my games installed on the 800gb section. Will i need to reinstall these games to play them on new setup or will they work automatically?

 

[HangTime]

Depends on the game:

-Some will just work straight off
-Some will be fixable by modifying the registry (e.g. export the keys now and then re-import onto the new PC)
-Some will require a re-install
-Steam games will work once you get the client installed

To be honest, my approach is nearly always to just try the game, if it doesn't work then delete the directory (backing up any saves etc) and reinstall.

 

[MeMeMeMe]

Hangtime's method is the one I use too.
This is one of many reasons to like steam, since you just need to reinstall the client to the same place, and the games will work (though on first run, they still usually go through that "installing C++ distributable" nonsense).

 

[wnb]

How about not wiping your hd? upgraded my pc in the past with new cpu, mb, memory and gpu and widows handles it just fine.

 

[garsands]

How about not wiping your hd? upgraded my pc in the past with new cpu, mb, memory and gpu and widows handles it just fine.

Yes I thought I read awhile ago that Windows 7 lets you do this.

But I would always do a clean install.

All my steam games still worked just fine.

I also used 'windows easy transfer' & it keeps all of your website log in details + game saves & settings you still need to reinstall the games non steam.