Ok, I know XP doesn't like big hardware changes but I am kinda in a temporary bind.
All the necessary stuff for my new rig is here and I want it together by this weekend but I was not left an install disk (which I will have to order from them tomorrow) by my ISP so I was wondering if a shortcut would work in the meantime.
Here is what I mean.
Would it suffice to just reinstall XP over itself after hooking everything up until the disk gets here or would there still be issues after the major hardware configuration change. In theory I wouldn't lose any connection info or software functionality from my D partition, but I don't know about reality, haven't been down that road yet. Thanks for any help ofered.

Why dont you just write down the settings for your connection so you could put them back after reinstall....

Duh! Probably because that would require thinking..... or something. I don't plan to leave it like that anyway...just a temp fix since they should have left me with a disk anyway.

I think your asking for a headache but it may work.......guess I havent tried.

Nah, it's cool I got it figured out. With my cable modem it should "reinitialize" itself when I plug it back in to the USB port.

I have an interesting setup with my ISP. I have wireless service, an antenna on my house connects to an antenna on my local water tower. Coax cable (looks like it, pretty thick) runs from the antenna to an all weather box on the side of my house with a Cisco card in it that runs Linux. CAT5 running out of that box to the ethernet port on my router........then to my PCs. Linux box gets an IP, router gets a different IP then each machine gets an IP - seems pretty secure.

That Linux box must have some sort of flash memory in it becuase once they set it up I have never had to do anything. Just plug in CAT5 cable and go, makes re-installs sweet and easy. The only downside is you hafta wait like 5 minutes for the damn box to boot and assign an IP after a power outage but its a small inconvenience.

Who is your ISP? I may have to check it out and see if they are in this part of Iowa. I like the way that sounds.....with the box running Linux. My current rig will soon be a Linux only rig once my new one is complete.

SIRIS Online is my ISP. There just a small, local ISP - actually they are part of the water company. They use the water towers to put antennas on - I usually get about 240k connection...not as good as DSL but that isnt an option here. You dont have to be particularly close to the water tower but still has to be relatively line of site. Alot of people out in the boonies who cant DSL just love it - alot better than dial up. I live in town but our town is small enough we dont have DSL available yet so its my only choice - costs about $35 a month....

Wait, you can make XP like hardwaree changes
http://forums.pcapex.com/showthread....highlight=enum
here do that and XP wont mind the change!!

w00t! Nice find Dimazz.... thanks a bunch! I will be using this method.