Swapping out motherboard and CPU on existing system
My motherboard went out on me a few days ago so I took the situation as time to upgrade. New mobo, CPU and memory. Using all my existing system components. My question is, can I avoid reinstalling Windows since my hard drive is working just fine? I have no way to get needed info off the drive and did not want to reformat.
Existing components are: Antex 900 case with Corsair GS800 power supply, GTX460 vid card, Seagate 250GB hard drive w/Windows XP Pro already installed, CD/DVD drive / burner combo.
As long as the new MOBO has the same chip set as the old one you won't have to reinstall.
Originally Posted By Global_Cooling:
As long as the new MOBO has the same chip set as the old one you won't have to reinstall.
Which is probably not the case if he's upgrading.
Short answer: It's possible. Slightly longer answer: Do it carefully. Windows is amazingly fragile when it comes to swapping mobos.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=windows+motherboard+swapI'm not 100% sure on this but if you can get XP booted long enough to install the new drivers for the motherboard and chipset (try in safe mode first) then it should work. If you had Vista or 7 you would need a new copy since it locks itself to a single hardware configuration.
How about if I purchased a second drive and installed WinXP Pro on that, could I retrieve info off the old drive? New drive being C (master) and old (slave) drive being D?
Originally Posted By RABIDFOX50:
How about if I purchased a second drive and installed WinXP Pro on that, could I retrieve info off the old drive? New drive being C (master) and old (slave) drive being D?
That would work too. I would only hook up the new drive and get WinXP installed and working on that first. Then plug in your old drive and you should see a second drive letter show up with all your old stuff on it. You will just need to make sure the jumpers on the drives are set either to Cable Select or one Master one Slave.
Originally Posted By castiel:
Originally Posted By RABIDFOX50:
How about if I purchased a second drive and installed WinXP Pro on that, could I retrieve info off the old drive? New drive being C (master) and old (slave) drive being D?
That would work too. I would only hook up the new drive and get WinXP installed and working on that first. Then plug in your old drive and you should see a second drive letter show up with all your old stuff on it. You will just need to make sure the jumpers on the drives are set either to Cable Select or one Master one Slave.
The hard part then is that the stuff on the old drive won't generally be automatically usable. You'll have to find the data on the old drive for the programs that you reinstall on the new drive to re-save/move back to the new drive.
After that, as you figure out where stuff is, it gets easier. I only mention it because the storage locations aren't always intuitive.
Originally Posted By Global_Cooling:
As long as the new MOBO has the same chip set as the old one you won't have to reinstall.
Upgrade is still most likely possible.
On the 1st boot after the upgrade, boot into SAFE MODE and install drivers. Reboot, and you most likely are good to go.
Couple "gotchas":
Set your boot device order in BIOS. Most likely this is just a "verify" and no changes are needed.
The hard drive mode can give you fits. AHCI mode vs. IDE mode (this is a hard drive setting in BIOS) can cause the system to fail booting into the OS.
If the system will not boot into the OS, even in SAFE mode, try changing the hard drive mode.
Originally Posted By kaos:
Originally Posted By castiel:
Originally Posted By RABIDFOX50:
How about if I purchased a second drive and installed WinXP Pro on that, could I retrieve info off the old drive? New drive being C (master) and old (slave) drive being D?
That would work too. I would only hook up the new drive and get WinXP installed and working on that first. Then plug in your old drive and you should see a second drive letter show up with all your old stuff on it. You will just need to make sure the jumpers on the drives are set either to Cable Select or one Master one Slave.
The hard part then is that the stuff on the old drive won't generally be automatically usable. You'll have to find the data on the old drive for the programs that you reinstall on the new drive to re-save/move back to the new drive.
After that, as you figure out where stuff is, it gets easier. I only mention it because the storage locations aren't always intuitive.
This is true. Your programs won't run without being reinstalled. I was assuming he meant accessing data off the old drive.
Yes, I did mean data. Pictures, videos, PDF docs, Etc.
I have done this quite a few times and just boot normally into windows. then put in the new mobo disk and install the new drivers.
XP will want you to re-register and update a few things, but no big deal.
pretty much every 5 years or so I upgrade my machine and reuse as many parts as possible. don't bother to reinstall if I can get away with it.
do this for the in laws and my father too every few years as well.
The only time I had one not boot up was for work and that was because it read the HD differently due to the new mobo. can't remember what the issue was, but wound up doing the windows repair on it and it was fine afterwards.
have only tried this up to vista, never worked with windows 7.
i did it in xp once. had to do a repair install and re-activate but no program reinstalls were needed. not sure if vista or 7 can do the same
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Originally Posted By Andrewh:
I have done this quite a few times and just boot normally into windows. then put in the new mobo disk and install the new drivers.
XP will want you to re-register and update a few things, but no big deal.
pretty much every 5 years or so I upgrade my machine and reuse as many parts as possible. don't bother to reinstall if I can get away with it.
do this for the in laws and my father too every few years as well.
The only time I had one not boot up was for work and that was because it read the HD differently due to the new mobo. can't remember what the issue was, but wound up doing the windows repair on it and it was fine afterwards.
have only tried this up to vista, never worked with windows 7.
Went just as you described. I had to re-register Windows and install drivers from the Mobo disk. Only one problem. The onboard LAN is not configured correctly. I can't get online. Device manager shows a yell;ow exclamation point next to Realtek controler. Can't get it to see itself or my hub (LAN cable direct connection. Too tired to mess with it now. I will in the morning. At least everything seems to be running well other than the network connection.
you missed a driver on the mobo disk then. unless it isn't built in?
normally the mobo can come with 1 of 3 different nic cards built in. the disk comes with all of the drivers.
normally the automatic software will pick it up, but looks like it might have screwed up.
try again, or just browse the disk and install all 3 drivers under the LAN folder and then have the hardware wizard look for it on your machine.
you would have to activate again.
i just reformatted when ever i did a upgrade.
Yup missed a driver. Looks like all is working. I backed up all my stuff this time on an external HD so if I need to reformat I am GTG. Going Win7 when I get the chance. After that, memory increase and SLI.
Reformat anyway, the other way is cludgy and not exactly the smartest way to do an upgrade as you still have old drivers in the way, bloated registry, and other not needed files taking away from your efficiency. Always better to do a fresh install when replacing major components.
Originally Posted By Angry-American:
Reformat anyway, the other way is cludgy and not exactly the smartest way to do an upgrade as you still have old drivers in the way, bloated registry, and other not needed files taking away from your efficiency. Always better to do a fresh install when replacing major components.
I'm planning for a a fresh reinstall when I get Win7, new HD and more memory. It will be a few weeks though.
Originally Posted By castiel:
I'm not 100% sure on this but if you can get XP booted long enough to install the new drivers for the motherboard and chipset (try in safe mode first) then it should work. If you had Vista or 7 you would need a new copy since it locks itself to a single hardware configuration.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/200827/upgrade_your_motherboard_the_easy_way.html
This article says you would need to re activate for win7, but it will work.
