Hard drive hardware/software upgrade/formating questions 98SE -> XP

To all wizards and gurus:

My configuration:

Micron Millennia Computer
440BX-2 Intel Motherboard
650 mhz PIII
448 megs ram
Channel 1: 13 gig 5400 rpm ide hd (boot drive), 30 gig 7200
rpm ide hd
Channel 2: cd-rw, tape backup drive
Maxtor 133 ata add in card: 80 gig 7200 rpm drive
Windows 98SE

I am about to upgrad from 98SE to XP. When XP sees the
fat16/32 will it upgrade it to an NTFS partition and should
I let it? Or is there a better method to convert it to an
NTFS partition. I am doing an upgrade not a clean install
because I don't want to re-install all my software.

Second, someday (maybe soon), I hope to upgrade my
motherboard. I am considering an Intel 865PE motherboard.
Can I just plug the HD's from the old motherboard into the
new one ok? That is, will the new mb recognize the
formating of the old mb or do I have to reformat the hd's to
work with the new mb?

Thanks for all the help you give to everyone!

Set aside a 8+GB unformatted partition at the beginning of one of your 7200
drives. Clean install XP there, and let if format NTFS. Also upgrade your Win
98 to XP.

Try both for a week. I bet you will go with the clean install and throw out
the 5400 drive.

Your disks will be usable on any motherboard, but XP may not boot anymore.

"Idaho Newsuser" Idaho wrote in message
...

Micron Millennia Computer
440BX-2 Intel Motherboard
650 mhz PIII
448 megs ram
Channel 1: 13 gig 5400 rpm ide hd (boot drive), 30 gig 7200
rpm ide hd
Channel 2: cd-rw, tape backup drive
Maxtor 133 ata add in card: 80 gig 7200 rpm drive
Windows 98SE

I am about to upgrad from 98SE to XP. When XP sees the
fat16/32 will it upgrade it to an NTFS partition and should
I let it? Or is there a better method to convert it to an
NTFS partition. I am doing an upgrade not a clean install
because I don't want to re-install all my software.

Second, someday (maybe soon), I hope to upgrade my
motherboard. I am considering an Intel 865PE motherboard.
Can I just plug the HD's from the old motherboard into the
new one ok? That is, will the new mb recognize the
formating of the old mb or do I have to reformat the hd's to
work with the new mb?

Idaho Newsuser wrote:
To all wizards and gurus:

My configuration:

Micron Millennia Computer
440BX-2 Intel Motherboard
650 mhz PIII
448 megs ram
Channel 1: 13 gig 5400 rpm ide hd (boot drive), 30 gig 7200
rpm ide hd
Channel 2: cd-rw, tape backup drive
Maxtor 133 ata add in card: 80 gig 7200 rpm drive
Windows 98SE

I am about to upgrad from 98SE to XP. When XP sees the
fat16/32 will it upgrade it to an NTFS partition and should
I let it? Or is there a better method to convert it to an
NTFS partition. I am doing an upgrade not a clean install
because I don't want to re-install all my software.

Second, someday (maybe soon), I hope to upgrade my
motherboard. I am considering an Intel 865PE motherboard.
Can I just plug the HD's from the old motherboard into the
new one ok? That is, will the new mb recognize the
formating of the old mb or do I have to reformat the hd's to
work with the new mb?

Thanks for all the help you give to everyone!

yuo should probably be asking in a windows xp newsgroup, but yes NTFS would
be better. Come time to chane HD, ghost will sort you out. Changing the
motherboard will also be fine provided you stick with the same brand of
chipset (so the intel you have sugested would be fine). If you choose to go
for a motherboard with a different (e.g. sis or via) chipset, you would have
to first change the vendor-specific IDE/ATAPI controller drivers to
"Standard DUAL PCI" etc. and also any other vendor specific devices under
system devices. Remember I said *first*. If you change the motherboard
without having compatable IDE/ATAPI drivers in place, you'll get STOP:
INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE or similar.

note this does not take into account any licensing / activation issues you
may run into. I personally would do the hardware work first, then go for XP.

cheers,
Carl