changing mobo, need to reinstal OS?

[jhyukkang]

hey, my mobo is broken, so im getting newone. i have e4400, 3gb ddr2 ......
if i change only the mobo, (totally different one) do i need to reinstall the OS?
or do i just install the drivers over the old ones?

 

[runswindows95]

It's easier to reinstall.

 

[pongrules]

It's best to format your hard drive, but I have a friend that didn't do that and his works just fine. In other words, he just installed the new drivers over the old ones. He's been running it for a month with no problems.

 

[rtfm]

You would run into less problems with a re-install, specially if the mobos are very different. If you don't reinstall, make sure to clean out all traces of the old drivers.....

...though I have installed xp on one machine and swapped the hdd out to another, totally different one (from p4 to amd!) with no probs, just to solve a bsod.

 

[jhyukkang]

since its faster to install new drivers over old ones, ill try that first when i get the mobo.

 

[Hellboy]

Hey guess what.....

We need to know what was the old motherboard....

And which is the new one your going to get....


If your going from a Intel Chipset to a Intel Chipset, it will be easy.

If your going from Nvidia chipset to Intel Chipset then its different...

When you post questions in future it will speed up the process when you let us know the complete story.....

Cheers

HB

ps

If your going from Intel to Intel...

Uninstall the old Intel chipset drivers, and Audio, reboot then install new Intel chipset, then the sound, video card drivers would be worth a refresh too.

secondly you may have to reactivate windows, easy to do on the phone if it dont work by the internet...

Good Luck

 

[jhyukkang]

sorry, about not posing my mobo, old one is intel 945G(P5)
and newone is intel p35
no nvidia

 

[buzznut]

If you want to install new drivers on top of old ones then you deserve the headaches you're going to have.

A clean reinstall is THE best way to go. I reinstall my OS about every six months just to clean all the crud out and have an optimal running system.

With a new motherboard why wouldn't you want a fresh OS?

 

[jhyukkang]

yeah~ but too lazy, dont want to move all files to my external HDD, move it back....

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Some thinking before you build makes this pretty easy and no moving stuff to external and back. If you had done this:

C:\OS and OS Utilities
D:\Swap and temp files
E:\Games
F:\Programs
G:\Data

you would only have to format an 8 or 16 GB C:\ drive. You'd still have to install your programs over themselves (and some of your games) but all your custom program settings, saved games etc would remain intact. You'd also insure that the stuff you want to be fastest is on the front (faster part) of your drive.

So, if ya ain't got that, maybe now's the time to invest the effort so as to make next time easier as well as pick up a bit for performance.

And no, I wouldn't install over if it was a different chipset. If it was, I'd think about installing over but I think I'd talk myself outta it.

 

[xnamerxx]

I went from a asus a8r32-mvp deluxe to a gigabyte p35-ds3r without having to reinstall the os. The ati board uses standard drivers and the intel board uses pretty close to standard drivers plus I have a pci raid controller so that helped a bit as well.