Does re-installing Windows (or upgrading) mean you have to format your hard-drive?

Question

I'm thinking about upgrading to Windows Vista when it comes out (I'm on Windows XP Professional at the moment) and I'm wondering whether it will involve formatting my hard-drive. It will be fairly easy to backup my pictures and documents etc, but I can't really be bothered to re-install all my games and back-up all the random files that I might need.

Also, does just re-installing Windows require a hard-drive format too? My hard-drive isn't partitioned, which I suppose doesn't help...

Answer 1

hi,reinstalling windows dosent allways mean you have to format your hard drive as there are several ways to install a operating system
in your case the easiest option would be to either a) buy a new hard drive (80gb would be ideal and only costs £29, at http://www.dabs.com/productlist.aspx?&NavigationKey=11154&NavigationKey=365570000&NavigationKey=41610000&NavigationKey=11&CategorySelectedId=11154&PageMode=1)
then you can set this new drive at a slave jumper setting(you will find the settings on the label on the hard drive case) and install vista on this and then you will have a dual boot system,this is were you boot up to a bott manager and can decide which operating system to use,however each o.s needs its own seperate drivers and security software
or b) this method will require a format and what you need to do is partition the drive into two sections(these are called partitions),the first partition is your primary drive and is were you put the first o.s you install,and in your case it will be windows xp,then the second partition is your logical drive,this is were you can put your second o.s,in your case "vista",however if you are going to partition make sure you use at least a 120gb hard drive(200gb pref) so when you partition it you have a decent sized partition
you can do the patitions a easier way,when you re-install windows you come to a part called partiton manager were you can delete and create partitions,so if i were you i would create 3 partitons(1 x windows xp , 1 x vista , 1 storage ) this way when you save pictures,files and games you can use the storage partition and not drown the drives with the operating systems on
with regards to the vista upgrade,when i installed the vista beta copy it gives youa excellent installation manager at the beginning of set up,so you may be able to create a new partition using this,but if you need to copy over windows xp,vista will save you windows xp and if you dont like vista it is possible to roll back the vista installation and return to xp,also when you install vista you dont loose any documents or files,windows will carry them over during set up,but you need to use the upgrade option,otherwise vista will copy over them
personally i reckon your best option would be to buy the new hard drive,as they are very cheap to buy,and you can never have enough hard drive storage
good luck

Answer 2

if you do a windows install the install disc will prompt you thru the install process and also tell you there is already a copy of windows installed. At that time it should give you a promt to repair your copy of windows. It will go thru the entire system to check the entire program. This way you will not loose any of your programs. I don't know Vista yet so can't help ya there. Good luck. Mikie.

Answer 3

Reinstalling doesnot require formatting the hard disk. However, in the case of Windows XP, reinstallation will overwrite the complete windows directory including the registry and hence, although your applications aare installed on the hard disk but they will become in-accessable.

Answer 4

Reinstallation may not require formatting. I can give you a link that deals with hard drive problems. Some RAM/hard drive problems can be easily fixed yourself by using easily available tools. I found the info at http://fixit.in useful. Try this site, if you can get what is required.

Answer 5

You should be able to install the upgrade without even harming your current configuration of programs or storage of your documents.