First off, I'm just looking for answers so if I ever had to use a recover disk (Norton Ghost) I'll have an idea of what to do.

eMachines
Windows XP SP2
1GB RAM
Pentium 4 3.06GHz


Right now I have a ATI Radeon 9250 PCI 256MB

Default/factory sent was an intel.

So if i had to recover, would it be pretty simple just to disable the intel and enable the ATI ?

Or would there be a problem if it recovers the Intel video card information but has the ATI installed?

And would I have to fiddle around with BIOS and all that ?

Pretty obvious the inside of the computer and what makes it tick is all greek to me, no? :cool: :D

For a recovery from the eMachines disk/partition, you might have to take out that Radeon 9250. Otherwise, the recovery routine will install the onboard video drivers when the device itself is disabled! Or worse, it might complete a half-way recovery! :eek: :( Best to be on the safe side of that one and just remove it.

After the recovery is complete, put the ATI driver file on the desktop, uninstall the onboard video driver (in safe mode), install the Radeon 9250, turn it back on, and install the ATI driver from the desktop.

That's what I would do, anyway...

I agree, I'm not positive but I think the recovery disk will install the drivers loaded at the factory no matter what card is actually in the machine, so it would probably be advisable to do it the way Saphalline suggested.

Perhaps you should setup a new system of backup & restore using a 3rd party backup program.
Such a backup would take account of all your latest changes in software & hardware.
Try out "Image" for DOS on the free "Emergency Boot CD" [EBCD] from http://ebcd.pcministry.com/
This needs a FAT[32] partition to save to & restore from.
If you don't have one just now, you could fit a 2nd [old, small, reclaimed] internal HDD to hold the backups.
Once you have a backup image file [or many] and have satisfied yourself that it's easy to restore [all of your HDD partitions], you could repartition your original drive [if you wanted to].

I keep my C: partition small.
Holds only "Windows" & "Program Files".
Have 6 backups of C: at the moment; taken July 18th, 21st, 27th, 30th, 31st, Aug 2nd.
Could restore any one of those to produce slightly different software setups
Different configurations; different installed programs.
Keep a log [by date] that shows which backup includes what.
Have an external USB connected IDE HDD to which I move or copy backups for safe keeping.

You could have one backup without the card, and one with.

Azgta - the link in your sig has been edited out. Suggest you dont replace it with that type of material here.

Perhaps you should setup a new system of backup & restore using a 3rd party backup program.That's always a good idea! Acronis True Image is my new favorite app for this! Then there's always the old stand-by, Norton Ghost. Or any other "imaging" app you can find. But it would be a good idea to make your own images from now on.