changing Motherboards

[BruceMyers48]

I don't know if this could bee done but I want to change Motherboards and not reload the OS Again. Can I swap motherboards and just attach my Already loaded HD to the board and let win XP Prof. Take on the new setting and then reactivate? I am trying to get out of formatting and reloading the OS. I was told that it would just crash. If it did crash could I use the recovery console to fix it. thanks Bruce

Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?

 

[Toejam31]

That depends on the mainboard. If you are changing chipsets and/or processor types ... format and reinstall. If the chipset is the same, you might get away with it. But the OS will probably require reactivation, as this is not like changing out a CD-ROM for a DVD-ROM.

Personally, when swapping out 'boards, I start over from scratch, to insure stability. I'd rather reinstall than troubleshoot errors ... it's less time-consuming.

In any case, you should remove anything related to the old mainboard in the Device Manager before making the change, and boot into Safe Mode the first time, so that only Windows drivers are loaded, and nothing else. Then you should uninstall any ghosted devices in the Device Manager, and afterwards, try a normal boot. Hopefully, Windows will allow the switch. But don't switch platforms and expect good results. And back up your data ... first. Always back up the data, if nothing else.

Toey

<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=328&s=91c282f2e5207e99b7a652ee13b3512a" target="_new"><font color=green>My System Rigs</font color=green></A>
___________________________________________

<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/" target="_new"><b><font color=purple>BTVILLARIN.com</font color=purple></b></A> - <i><font color=orange>Your Computer Questions Answered</font color=orange></i>

 

[BruceMyers48]

Well I knew that I was just wishing something changed overnight. HA ! I'm swapping a KT4 msi board for the K7N2 Delta/Raid/lan/firewire/and all the other trimings. I built a second PC with the K&N2 and I was really impressed with the over all performance of the Board. I'm putting a 2800 Barton with my usual 512 2700 kingston mem.. Thanks for the advise. I was probaly going to format and reinstall anyway just fot the stability. Bruce

Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?

 

[addiarmadar]

You can change out anything without windows hosing on you EXCEPT the mobo. There are specific drivers like the ATA and the AGP controllers if running on a different mobo it would just reboot windows constantly. May have to reinstall windows or just use the recovery console to replace the system 32 folder back to default but you are beter off just reinstalling the whole thing..

F-DISK-Format-Reinstal DO DA!! DO DA!!