So, I migrated to the new C8 a few months ago, and I want to put my C5 back into my system, but it still has all the old devices, rules, etc.
I am afraid of booting it up as i feel it could mess things up, I was thinking of taking it to my office and resetting it where it would not interfere, but Is there something I can do at home so it wont mess things up?
You'll want to reset the two radios to get them to use new Mesh numbers (Home Network). Additionally, for Zigbee, change the channel.
The Z-radios are on anytime the hub is powered and 'fixing' the overlapping mesh will stop it from interfering with the C-8. Many of us have multiple hubs, I have 6 powered on, only 1 has Zigbee enabled BUT all of them are alive anyway. I've got them using chan 26 I believe. It's a somewhat useless chan since it's regulated to lower power. In other words, as long as you give your working Zigbee a clear shot, there's nothing to worry about. 
After resetting the radios, you can do a soft reset to remove all the old config. You'll be able to start anew and perhaps use the C5 to offload tasks, like internet facing devices (Alexa, Google Home, Weather, etc.) In that situation you can also disable the radios too.
I guess the question is how do I reset the device before it boots up. i know how to reset it, but i have to log in to it, meaning its running.
I do know of a reset button, but I might be missing on how to use the pin to reset the raidos.?
You don't reset it before it boots. You just briskly go in after and reset the radios. You will be causing interference until you do. If you power it back up during a 'quiet time' you'll be fine. In other words, don't try it during a party when people are triggering motion, opening and closing doors, etc. Pick a time when the interference will have the least number of packets to interfere with. Your meshes will recover right after because they are designed that way. But it will take a few minutes too. I'd go for a 30 min slice of time when things are pretty quiet and reboot, reset radios in 15 mins then give the meshes 15 min to recover.
As to the reset button hidden on the bottom, that resets networking back to DHCP. It will not affect the radios.
ahh.. ok, that was what I was worried about, quiet time is not the best cause of the cats (Ill get them sleeping) otherwise, I was thinking of just bringing it to my office, But thanks, I am glad to know that it will not break anything. makes me feel better.
FYI that’s only a network settings reset button. It causes the hub to reboot and look for a new DHCP address from your router.
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