So Ive bought an xp home disc after i had trouble with my pc (xp media center edition) not being able to support various music production hardware products! Now that i have the disc i understand I have to back up my files but I was wondering what else I would have to do. I have made a list of all the softwares etc i will lose in changing OS.

I have been on microsoft website and didn't find it answered this specific question.

I was mainly wondering how i could reinstall drivers for my sound card (realtek), graphics card (nvidia) etc. given that i know they are available online but can't put them since I cant get online to install them since the new os installation will wipe my routers software?

How do I install my drivers? Is there anything else I should consider before going through with this?!

basically I'm confused and any assistance would really be appreciated!

Thanks if you actually read that!

Hello and welcome to PC Help Forum.

If you give a list of hardware we maybe able to help.

NVIDIA GeForce 7300

and soundcard is from realtek
version 5.10.00.5200
Direct x version irectx9.0c
Audio Codec: ALC880
Audio Controller: HD Audio

84.66 : graphics card info)
The thing is I know what drivers I have to use and where to get them from for graphics. Not really for sound card though. I just dont know how to get it from the internet to my pc during the installation of the new os. presumably the new os wont really work without the graphics card and sound card? I'm a beginner really and dont know much about this stuff. Is this right: Realtek

if so would i want the zip one or the exe?

I just want to learn how to do this so I dont want to take it to the shop. Is it really as simple as putting in the disc and letting it do its work?!

if i download the drivers and write them to a disc would this be enough to reinstall them after the new os is installed?

If you meant the music hardware ( i just assumed you didnt..) then products like M-audio's and Mbox and all audio interfaces that i know of dont work because of driver problems in xp media center edition.

Thanks again, especially for the speedy replies!

Well download them first,save to a file then burn them to disk or put to floppy drive.Then you have them ready to install.Or a pen drive.

To install a OS go into BIOS set first boot device to CD/DVD rom put in XP disk press F10 save and exit.

Then follow this link,Pint out if you wish.
How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP