So I'm building my own rig...

[md714]

Im putting together my rig with an Asus A8N32-SLI and an AMD 4000+ (2.4ghz).

One concern that I have is compatability with equipment from my current computer. I have an aftermarket dvdburner which I'm almost 100% will be compatible, but I also have three hard disk drives that I would like to use on my new creation.

I already have Windows XP SP2 installed on one of them and the other two contain games/music/files. Will I be able to simply plug one or more in to the new motherboard and boot up?

-OR-

Will I have to format one and reinstall windows and start from there?

just f.y.i... one is a 40gb (with windows), one is an 80gb, and the third is a 200gb (the evolution of my computer actually spans about six years so you can really tell that i've grown out of it! )

[MaxRat]

What pc are you moving the hard drive over from...?

It's always best to back up and do a fresh install on a new build... or even doing a major update on a current build...

You can try going into the device manager and uninstalling everything when done power down and make the swap... during power up it may re-install the generic device drivers...

Going from a different chipset will NOT work without a re-install...

Once you get it up and going just plug the other drives in and you should be fine...as long as there not configure with encryption...

[md714]

I am moving the hard drives (3 of them) from my dell dimension to my new build.

Between my 40gb (full), 80gb (full), and 200gb (3/4 full) drives, what is my BEST option for keeping all of my programs and data when I transfer between systems.

Im not sure how to back up my information... I could move things from the 40 onto the 200 and then format the 40, but I want all of my programs on the 40 to work. I can buy a new copy of Windows XP from my University for about 14 bucks so I'm not worried about having to do that.

I guess I really just don't know what I'm doing with storage.

[glc]

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=151522