Upgrade in what order?

[webfoot2]

I will be shuting down to upgrade the CPU,MB,RAM,and Video Card. I also would like to format the harddrive and clean install the OS. In what order should I do all of this? Do I uprgade 1st,then format and install the OS? Or maybe format the HDD reinstall Win ME then do the upgrade? ....webfoot2

[canit]

I would upgrade then clean install.

[Roy]

I wouldn't bother to reformat the HDD unless you have a really good reason. Why lose all that's there and have to start from scratch?

I've done clean OS reinstalls several times, and Defrag is important on a regular basis.

The heart of the system is the HDD, it's like doing a head transplant when you move it to a new "body". I've done that repeatedly too without problems.

[webfoot2]

I'm not sure how this works. What is a clean install? I thought that you had to format to clean data off the HDD then reinstall the OS?
>webfoot

[F-14 GOD]

You don't have to re-format your HDD. You don't even have to re-install windows but I would highly recommend it. First make sure you have a windows boot disk that has drivers to access your cd-rom. Since you are upgrading the video card, go to the maker's web site and verify that the drivers that came with the card are the most recent. It seems like they come out with new drivers every week. A friend of mine had major problems with the slot Athlon mobo and the first series geforce card until he upgraded drivers. This will save you headaches later. If you are still formatting your HDD and there are new drivers, put them on a floppy. Now upgrade your system and boot up with the boot disk. Select CD support and wait for the A:\ prompt. If you are re-formatting the HDD type "format C:" without the quotes. When the format is complete or if you decide not to re-format type "setup" without the quotes to install windows. Windows may try to use generic drivers for the video card (I can't remember). If windows doesn't let you use your own drivers during the installation make sure you install them after. Otherwise you'll be stuck with a resolution of 640 x 480 at 16 colors. Anyway this is just my suggestion. I am in no way an expert. Good luck.

[Axel]

If you are going to do all that - I'd treat it like a new system - Take out the old drive and make it the slave on the CD-ROM cable.
put in the new drive in the master slot -
replace the motherboard - put in the RAM - put in the video card.

get a win98 boot disk ( http://www.bootdisk.com ) with CD support and use that to restart to load the new OS.

This will mean that you have to reload all of your applications on the new drive - but you'll have all your data files for these aps on the old drive so you can pull them off as you need them. Anything you haven't pulled over in 2 months - format it along with the rest of the old drive.... chances are you won't miss it until tax season - ( save the turbotax stuff over whole )

as indicated above - always a good idea to optimize the hard drive again and again after each major application install to clean it up prior to your next install.

This approach will minimize the problems you transplant from your old system. Also - you don't have to reboot into safe mode and take out all the old junk in device manager - fresh is the less painful method in my experience. many many fewer conflicts and driver issues......

enjoy - you are about to go through a learning experience - DON't be in a hurry or on a schedule. <<< that usually means you run out of time or hurry something that shouldn't be....

[webfoot2]

What cable connection is best for these componets? HDD,cdrom,cd-rw,ls-120?
>The plextor CDRW should be configured as a master,according to the instructions.

[F-14 GOD]

Put the HDD as master on the primary IDE with (I'm assuming that the ls-120 is some sort of removeable media) the ls-120 as slave. As for the CD roms, I always put the fastest one as primary on the secondary IDE. My burner also said to put it as master but I have had no problems with it as a slave. I've never used a plextor so you will just have to experiment. It really doesn't matter whether you put the master on the first connector or not, just as long as you put the jumpers on the drives in the right place. Also if your HDD is ATA/66 or ATA/100 be sure that you have an 80 conductor cable. Otherwise your HDD will default to ATA/33 (which transfers data half as fast). You can use a 40 conductor cable for the CD-ROMs.
Good luck!

[F-14 GOD]

Put the HDD as master on the primary IDE with (I'm assuming that the ls-120 is some sort of removeable media) the ls-120 as slave. As for the CD roms, I always put the fastest one as primary on the secondary IDE. My burner also said to put it as master but I have had no problems with it as a slave. I've never used a plextor so you will just have to experiment. It really doesn't matter whether you put the master on the first connector or not, just as long as you put the jumpers on the drives in the right place. Also if your HDD is ATA/66 or ATA/100 be sure that you have an 80 conductor cable. Otherwise your HDD will default to ATA/33 (which transfers data half as fast). You can use a 40 conductor cable for the CD-ROMs.
Good luck!