i'm upgrading a p2 233mhz with win NT, new motherboard nforce , duron 1.3ghz. would i get away without formatting?
and can i use pc2700 on a board that only goes upto pc2100(running it on a lower clock speed or something)?

in short no, you are going from a pentium chipset to one for an AMD. even if you managed not to reformat you would have nothing but problems with the machine. best to do a reformat and clean install.

This sort of thing used to be possible in days gone by, but now a days Operating Systems are getting too complex to do what you describe any more. Linux would give it a good shot, but Windows XP will likely land you with a blue screen.

In any case, you will get much better performance from a clean install.

When you get a new motherboard, in essense you have a new machine. You would never dream of taking the HDD from one system and putting it in another, unless it was in exceptional circumstances.

No. Format and reinstall.

but i'm keeping windows NT. it for my dad and he doesnt want to formaat because he needs the stuff (i said to buy some zip drives but as last resort) see he worked on openVMS and lots of other things and he still thinks that you can get away with these things without formatting i told him. oh and thx Mictlantecuhtli. i bought pc2700 by accident but i can use it on an other system anyway

What stuff is it that he needs to keep??

Oh, and I certainly don't see you swapping motherboard with Windows NT in a hurry...

I had no probl;ems whatsoever going from a PIII500mhz to an AMD chip.

In fact, it was problem free. No issues whatsoever.

I literally just popped in the new mobo, hoocked everything up, and booted.

It immedialtley recognized the new PCIbusses, AGP busses, and tones of other things. It installed all the drivers automatically. Later, of course, I downloded and installed more current Chipset drivers and such, but is was problem free. I say go for it.

and you were using Windows NT as an OS?

It was before I had XP, on Win 98 (FAT32)

he mainly needs to keep his dial up things as he doesnt have the details anymore.

it ok hes getting a disk