What type of hardware might need new drivers? Every time I low-level format, I make sure to download all current drivers (winxp os) for my mouse, headphones, video card, and anything else that's plug and play. Also, make sure to view hidden files and folders, show extensions for known files types, show protected os files, then copy and paste the i386 folder from the winxp cd to your hard drive. I'm not quite sure which devices you're talking about though.

Thanks for the reply. Devices are the ones I mentioned (CDRW,DVD) plus the usual suspects of course (video, audio). I have never had to download special mouse drivers for any machine -- but of course there is a mouse and keyboard too. This is a stock HP Pavilion of several years ago. So I need to go to each manufacturer's site and find drivers for each of these things? I was hoping there was a way to transfer drivers from the current installation -- but I guess that's not possible with a fresh install. Also, the second part of your message sounds a bit scary:

"...make sure to view hidden files and folders, show extensions for
known files types, show protected os files..."

What do I do with this info? Somehow this upgrade seems less appealing by the minute...

LOL no, I didn't mean it in a bad way. The original reason why I view those files and the file extensions is that I copy the "i386" folder from the winxp cd to my hard drive. It contains a lot of information and whatnot, and when ever windows asks for your winxp cd, all you have to do is point them to the folder you copied to your hard drive

As far as your CD/DVD drives go, they shouldn't need any special drivers. I know DVD players love to have their codecs and DVD player utilities (WinDVD, Cyberlink Power DVD, etc). The stock mouse/keyboard you shouldn't worry about either. You pretty much look good to go.

If you do want to view files and folders here whatcha do:

- Right-Click on the Start button and click Explore
- At the top click Tools then go down to Folder Options and click that
- Click on the View tab
- Click the radio button for "Show Hidden Files and Folders"
- Uncheck the box for "Hide Extensions for Known File Types"
- Uncheck the box for "Hide Protected Operating System Files (Recommended)"
- Click Apply

OK, this sounds better. I was thinking of backing up the windows folder (or some of its subfolders) to an external USB drive that's attached to the machine -- just in case. Would that be of any use? Looks like I'll be getting to this upgrade after my vacation, sometime in late August.

USB is PnP (plug 'n play) and 99% of the time windows has the basic drivers for it. The 1% is proprietary or makes it function better.

Right -- but the point here was to save the current Windows folder (with all the drivers) in the external USB drive so all current device drivers are available after doing a fresh install on the main drive. (Though I've never done this before and I don't know if drivers can be accessed and installed this way after an upgrade).

Eh, i'm not sure where Windows (or the hardware itself) likes to throw drivers. I just figure they're all over the place and I don't mind having to re-download drivers every time after I reformat. Plus I get to see if there's a newer driver out.