Changing OS - please help a luddite!

[diplodocus]

Hi. We currently have vista on our desktop which has become unstable, so we are taking it in to have it removed and replaced with Windows 7. I understand that this means everything will be deleted. I've copied documents / pictures / music etc. to an external hard drive but what about drivers? Can put those on an external hard drive too, or will I have to reload them all? also We've had wired broadband since the year dot, and while we are going to go wireless soon we want to set it up at first wired with our original provider (tiscali). We think we have the original installation disc but will it still work with windows 7? What else should we have thought of?
Thanks

As far as I know when you get the desktop back it should be up and running complete with drivers.There is a utility on windows 7 that allows you to make a system inage to a hard drive,very useful to restore the operating system if you run into problems again,it is accessed through control panel,not sure of the exact name as am on windows 8 atm,but if you need more info I can fire up my desktop(windows 7 ) and let you know.

As for the internet,I dont think you will need the instillation disc,just plug in the ethernet cable,open up a browser and off you go,Ive certainly never used the bt discs.Good luck and just shout if you need any more help.

It should come back to you fully working with drivers installed for everything that is actually inside the computer. If you have things hooked up to it that need drivers (for example, a printer), you may have to reinstall those, although a lot of stuff is plug-and-play these days so it may be the case that you plug something in, it'll think for a second, then just work. If not, though, you can almost always, unless whatever you're connecting is a true antique, download a new copy of the driver from the manufacturer's website if you no longer have the disc.

About the internet, I'm not sure what discs you mean, maybe router installation discs? Like Chanatan says, you may not need them depending on what discs you're actually talking about. If you do, though, I wouldn't be too worried. If they worked with Vista they'll almost certainly work with 7, the two operating systems are sufficiently similar under the hood and although there were some compatibility issues when 7 first came out, those were all pretty much ironed out over the years.