upgrading mobo under win xp

[smooveb]

Hi everyone,

in a couple months when nForce2 comes out, I'm going to want to upgrade my motherboard/ram. I've done this with some success under 98 by deleting a particular registry entry, perhaps something to do with local machine. In this day and age, I'm hoping I can do this type of upgrade with relative ease, and without formatting my hard drive(s).

Any advice for me out there? Would be much appreciated!
Thanks,
B

 

[nja469]

Won't work. Back up all your files and you'll have to reinstall. It's good to start off with a clean install once in a while anyhow. If you backup your files correctly, meaning get into my computer and into your XP personal file and copy over your favorites, desktop, start menu files it should be a zip to reinstall.

You can TRY rebooting once you upgrade the board, but more than likely XP will error and not boot. NT, 2k, XP are dependant on loading the hardware profile it was setup for, 98 and so were not efficient OS'es and could be worked around when changing major hardware components.

 

[smooveb]

Ok, thanks for the advice. I think I'll try to image my whole boot disk to a larger hard drive. Then I'm assuming, if I do need to reinstall, I'll need to reinstall 98 first (as I have the upgrade version of XP). Then I guess I foresee a whole lotta reinstalling software - a WHOLE lot It's really too bad there's no software tool out there to help with this stuff; wish upgrading the mobo was more like upgrading any other component. But I suppose it should be worth it.

 

[smooveb]

is there any way to copy over my registry entries regarding games and such? Would be nice to copy my gamefiles over from an image of my old hard disk, onto a clean xp install drive, without having to totally go through reinstallations...

 

[Rubberbband]

Try installing XP as a stand alone. It may prompt you to insert your win '98 CD for verification purposes. That's how I use to instal ME. I bought the OEM copy of XP but I'm sure the upgraded version is also capable. That way you won't have the problems associated with upgrading an OS.
Later

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it.

 

[mwgorecki]

smooveb,
It is time to wipe your system! Also, Win XP is NOT happy about several upgrades at once - if you exceed the limit set by MS, you will need to get a 40 digit code to reinitialize Win Xp.


sz