Question About Reinstalling Windows

[ShadowDaemon777]

This is a really n00b question...but I'll go ahead and ask it. When reinstalling windows and reformatting the hard drive, does windows ask you to reinstall the drivers, or do you do that after windows installs?

I've been lucky and have never had to reformat a hard drive before (although I probably should have ), so this unfortunately is the first time I've really ever needed to.

[scriptkiddie18]

before you format your drive you should get a boot disk for the windows you are going to reinstall and that should do it i think...i use a bootdisk for my secondary drive too but only cause there is some bug with the bios and my WD800JB drive

[darkes]

Originally posted here by ShadowDaemon777
This is a really n00b question...but I'll go ahead and ask it. When reinstalling windows and reformatting the hard drive, does windows ask you to reinstall the drivers, or do you do that after windows installs?

I've been lucky and have never had to reformat a hard drive before (although I probably should have ), so this unfortunately is the first time I've really ever needed to.

Well, assuming you are running a fairly recent version of Windows (i.e. 95 or higher ), the first thing you want to check out is that your PC will boot from the CD that came with your system.
Look at your BIOS options to see how to boot from a CD.

You most definitely do not need to make a boot disk, as if your CD doesn't boot then you are probably stuffed anyway.

It does make a big difference as to whether your CD is a 'recovery disk', or a genuine full copy of Windows. The former will reinstall everything as it was when you originally purchased the PC (it uses a hidden partition on your HD to do this). A full copy of Windows will set everything back to the Windows defaults, but may well ask you for other drivers as it installs.

Windows will install default drivers in most cases if you ignore the error messages, which whilst they work, will not allow you to use your hardware as it was intended. You can fix this afterwards by downloading the appropriate drivers from your manufactures sites.

Obviously, in either case, all your saved data will be wiped, so you need to back it up first.

[MemorY]

does windows ask you to reinstall the drivers, or do you do that after windows installs?

I've formatted about 200 HDD's now, not only mine, and Windows installed all the drivers during the installation.

before you format your drive you should get a boot disk for the windows you are going to reinstall and that should do it i think...i use a bootdisk for my secondary drive too but only cause there is some bug with the bios and my WD800JB drive

What the hell did that have to do with the question ?

[nihil]

Hi Guys,

A few words from an old fart?

1. Windows will attempt to load the best drivers it can find for the stuff it discovers...........problem is that it may not have drivers for upgrades you have installed?....this machine has a 64Mb nVidia graphics card.........no driver........a 17" LCD flat screen....no driver...and so on..........you need the drivers for the add-on kit.............I always save them to floppy/CD, because you avoid a lot of grief that way (unless I have them on the media that came with the kit).

2. What about your BIOS?.........those HDD capacity restraints............I run some old kit with big drives, so I need to use the HDD manufacturer's boot disk to get it to reformat and install properly (EZDrive or whatever)................only then can I re-install Windows, unless I want a 40Gb drive reduced to an 8.44?.

3. In general you will have to install USB devices as a separate exercise..............they MUST NOT be connected when you first start............reformat, re-install, re-boot, load USB drivers, attach USB device......or they just won't work!

Just a few thoughts

[scriptkiddie18]

What the hell did that have to do with the question ?

I was saying that there wouldn't be no need for anything else but a way to start windows again with either a cd or if he cant boot via CD he should get a boot disk...get it?

[rcgreen]

If you have any really new or unusual hardware, especially if
you installed it yourself, you may need to use drivers that
came with that hardware. This may be true of printers, scanners,
webcams, whatever. Windows comes with lots of drivers, and may
have everything you need already.

All you can do is proceed with the install and hope for the best.
Make sure you have your product serial numbers and birth certificate
for your first born child.

[jinxy]

All versions of windows come with a good supply of drivers for hardware that was in use at the time that that version of windows was released. So if you are reinstalling a modern version of windows, say xp/2000 on a fairly new machine the chances are that all the drivers you nead will be included on the cd. The same can be true of older hardware as microsoft do backward compatability.

However it maybe nesessary to update your drivers after a fresh install of windows to get the best out of your hardware. If you are installing xp there is a feature that will inspect your hardware and let you no if there could be a problem. You can then download any drivers you may need and save them to disk for install later.