building my pc

hi am currently set to build my new pc from tower up just wondering before i install.
I will be using my to hard drives in my curent computer.
no hard drives with new tower.
just a new motherboard, p4, memory and sound card.
Question is is can i just install my hard drives int my new pc and have it work, or will i have to blank them and reboot my xp and all programs.
Any support on this would be great

WHAT VIDEO CARD?

NOT ONBOARD INTEL EXTREME GRAPHICS I HOPE

nope already have a geforce 6800 128mb

on the hard drives you can try it to see if it will recognize the new mb
usually a reformat is better
if the drives are not raid setup move all data to the drive without the os and try just the one drive to see if it will boot if it does and things go smoothly add the second with your dara
best put everything irreplaceable on cd or dvd to play safe
also you might add the sound card later as well
the less new stuff on startup the better
xp may or may not squalk for a fresh activation

I'd just go ahead a reinstall the whole thing. Make a 10 gig partition the HD for OS only. That way the next time you install your other files and programs won't be affected.

You should be alright. Like the other guys said, it's better to reformat, but you could probably get away with not doing it.


Personally though, I would back everything up onto CD's or DVD's and then reformat both. This would be a lot more hassle then the many other errors that could be lying in wait down the road for you...

tx for all the sugestions