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I need some help. I'm about ready to to change from a PIII based system to an Athlon system. I have a new IWill KK266 MB with a Athlon 1.2.

I want to dump my old MB and processor, and install the new board and CPU and simply move my old HD, video, PC133 memory, SB Live, and network card over. I also want to add a second HD (both HD's are IBM ATA 100 30 gig). I have been told I must wipe my old drive clean as it will not work with a new MB.

Is this true? I don't think so, but this will be my first attempt at installing a new MB myself and I don't want it all to go sideways.

Any help on the HD side, or general installation tips is GREATLY appreciated!
 

koolman_

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well my friend sadly its true that your old HD will not work with your new mobo unless you format it and reinstall everything from scratch:(i also had to do the same thing when i upgraded but if you want your data to be saved you can still transfer your data to your new HD:) and hope it still works with your new system.Good Luck

"Giving Up is the step towards failure"
 
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I've just upgraded my mobo and cpu but I didn't format my hard disk and everything's just fine. Maybe it's actually best practice to do a format though. (i'm not sure) I suppose the obvious thing to do is backup what you really need and then try it and if it fails at least you got some of the files you wanted to keep.
 
Try it first without formating the old drive. Load the motherboard drivers imediately. you may have to go into the system settings and remove a few old drivers to get the new drivers to configure to your setup. If this doesn't work, you can always format it later.
 
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Thanks for the advice. You mean once everything is ready to go and I'm booting up for the first time, have the MB CD in the CD-ROM, right?
 

evil_homer

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Though it might seem like a lie, I have seen hard drives removed from one system and put in another, and run without any problems. While I would not reccomend this I have seen it done. I would say just to be safe, back up, and re-format. Besides it's all ways good to re-format every once in a while.
With regards to install tips, make sure you have all of your drivers on hand BEFORE you reformat, and if you don't GET THEM.
Next remember that is almost always the little things.


PC load letter.....
 

carlbeck

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I recently upgraded a friends system from a K6 400 to a PIII 1Gb. I have upgraded systems before and had success simply installing the Hard Drive and it booted: BUT: This time nothing. I booted from a Win Me Start up disk and tried "DIR" on C:. No files. I thought this strange but; Oh Well: just use fdisk (2 partitions still remained); Format and install Windows. (ERROR: Too many files in root directory.) I had never seen this before. I started over with fdisk, deleted partitions and reestablished 2 as my friend wanted. I then formated again and tried to install. NO LUCK. Could it be a bad hard drive? Maxtor 30 Gb 5400. I did not think so. After thinking about it awhile, I downloaded the Low Level Format program from Maxtor, did a Low Level Format, (It took about 6 hours), Fdisk again with 2 partitions, Format, and install Windows. Everything worked fine. My friend had a back-up that was only 2 days old so I restored that. (He had unique programs which originally were a bear to install so I wanted to do it the easy way. Ha!. Since there were a lot of new hardware items; Motherboard, On-Board Sound, AGP Video Card, and all the new drivers for the Motherboard, It took some time to get the registry cleaned out and the system running smoothly. My friend is now VERY happy and I learned a simple upgrade that I assumed I could do in about 2 hours took about 20 hours and a lot of head scratching.
 

Ncogneto

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No gurantees but this will improve your odds. Before you dismantall the old machine boot into safe mode and delete all the devices that are associated with your motherboard. These will be found in device manager under system devices. Also delete your bus master controller. If you have any unistall routines for motherboard devices in the " add remove programs" list uninstall them as well. Then remove the hard drive and replace the motherboard and cpu. Now you have not stated which OS so from here it gets a little tricky. If 98SE upon first boot, hit f8 imediatly after post, choose command prompt only, and run scanreg/fix from the prompt. Restart and have your device drivers ready. If Win Me you will need a ME boot disk to run this command.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!
 

girish

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actually, you should do a fresh format/install. just putting your existing disk might work though. the system will reboot a number of times (thats anything between 2 to 12) and you might experience some problems since now there is mixture of old drivers with new hardware.
and even if you do or dont have any such functional problem, your system is bound to work a lot slowly.

bottom line: do a format/reinsatll!

girish

<font color=blue>die-hard fans don't have heat-sinks!</font color=blue>
 
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Depends on your OS and if you want to take the time to do a fresh install. In win9X I usually boot in safe mode, remove every thing i can in device manager, reboot and let it find all the new hardware. That works most times but when it dosen't or when i want the fresh clean feeling of a new install, just delete the windows directory and do a scratch install. But thats just what i do.

-Tim
 

khha4113

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I want to dump my old MB and processor, and install the new board and CPU and simply move my old HD, video, PC133 memory, SB Live, and network card over. I also want to add a second HD (both HD's are IBM ATA 100 30 gig).
It could work, give it a try. You'll need to copy your KK266 mobo's CD that contains VIA IDE driver to your HD first because you probably can't access CD at its first boot to load drivers (happened to me when I swapped the old A7V to new A7V133).

:smile: Good or Bad have no meaning at all, depends on what your point of view is.
 
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Thanks for the excellent feedback. I'm using Windows 2000 Pro. Any advice for this OS?
 

lhgpoobaa

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you dont have to wipe everything and reinstall... but if that drive is your operating system you may as well cauz there will be a load of things to update for your system settings.

also, its far better having the new faster drive as the operating system drive.
ive got a speedy 7200rpm 60gxp, and my old 5400rpm 16.8GP has been religated to the backup drive. still works fine with the new system, but lacks performance as its only ata33.

AMD chips run hot. The world is getting hotter. Therefore, AMD is causing Global Warming!
 
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Just a big thanks to thoise of you who responded. I was able to successfully upgrade AND keep my current HD with all my programs in tact. So far, so good. There seems to be no performance lag at all. It's early, so we'll see.

Thanks again, all!