Existing XP PC...want to replace Motherboard....What to Do?
Discussion
Topic says it all really....
After 4 years of surviving with my trusty Duron, its time to swap boards. So I've ordered me a new 775 board and a new CPU / RAM.
However, I've got a 200Gb hard disk with XP already on it, so whats the best thing to do?
I remember in the dim and distant past (Win95), you could delete pretty much everything out of Device Manager, reboot and it would find everything new and away you went.
Has anyone done this? If so - any gotchas?
I really don't want to have to blow XP away.
Greg
After 4 years of surviving with my trusty Duron, its time to swap boards. So I've ordered me a new 775 board and a new CPU / RAM.
However, I've got a 200Gb hard disk with XP already on it, so whats the best thing to do?
I remember in the dim and distant past (Win95), you could delete pretty much everything out of Device Manager, reboot and it would find everything new and away you went.
Has anyone done this? If so - any gotchas?
I really don't want to have to blow XP away.
Greg
My PC died big time. It was 2K, not XP and I wanted to keep it. I used a new MoBo CPU etc (All different) and plugged the hard drive in with the MoBO drivers CD in the caddy.
It booted, rattled for five minutes or so and then just worked, even down to the wireless USB keyboard.
All I had to do was remove the surplus drivers after the event. Mine was an unplanned upgrade
so if you plan ahead it should be simple.
If it was me I would copy the drivers CD to your existing HDD first, just in case.
It booted, rattled for five minutes or so and then just worked, even down to the wireless USB keyboard.
All I had to do was remove the surplus drivers after the event. Mine was an unplanned upgrade
so if you plan ahead it should be simple. If it was me I would copy the drivers CD to your existing HDD first, just in case.
Thats what I'm thinking Rob.
Looking at Google, seems if it all goes tits up you can select Repair from the XP CD menu, and it will go through a reinstall, but leave all the app settings intact.
Sort of looking forward to it though - I'm going from a 900MHz Duron to a 3GHz P4 with HT, dunno if I'll notice much difference!
Cheers,
Greg
Looking at Google, seems if it all goes tits up you can select Repair from the XP CD menu, and it will go through a reinstall, but leave all the app settings intact.
Sort of looking forward to it though - I'm going from a 900MHz Duron to a 3GHz P4 with HT, dunno if I'll notice much difference!
Cheers,
Greg
fish said:James, sorry mate, should have been clearer.....the PC started life with a 30Gb HDD, but late last year I binned that and chucked the 200GB HDD in. So the install of XP is less than a year old.
If yours is a legit copy of XP and you have the CD I would suggest saving your data and wiping the HDD and do a new install. 4 years of use does slow them down abit and a clean install will be better.
Depends on whether you can be bothered and have a backup solution for your data.
I'll try a repair, at least I can back my data off onto the 30GB slave.
Cheers,
Greg
Just a fly in the ointment to add - if a PC has been upgraded to XP SP2, I don't think you can use the original installation CD to repair the installation - or not when I have tried it.
It sees the CD ROM as being an 'old' version. Question is then, how to repair an SP2 installation when you have installed it via Windows Update?
It sees the CD ROM as being an 'old' version. Question is then, how to repair an SP2 installation when you have installed it via Windows Update?
You could try doing a sysprep on it before you change the board etc over. So long as you give it the drivers for the new stuff you're putting in, then it'll be happy going to an entirely different machine. It basically runs the last portion of windows setup, so it detects all the hardware from scratch.
>> Edited by agent006 on Saturday 22 October 11:57
>> Edited by agent006 on Saturday 22 October 11:57
Two things - in device manager, if the IDE controller isn't allready listed as 'standard duel channel' then change it to that before swapping (via update driver/let me choose). This will help avoid the dreaded 'inaccessible boot device' error. Second thing, you'l have to re-activate after the swap. Apart from that the odds are in your favour!
I recently upgraded from an Althon AGp board to Intel PCI-E board, and the re-install get getting stuck on the VIA chipset drivers, and then other things
Tried the repair option, disabling video card, uninstalling drivers etc.
I tried all sorts of things to get round this, and ended up doing a fresh insall from the original XP CD and then re installing the apps and SP2.
Good luck
Koenig
Tried the repair option, disabling video card, uninstalling drivers etc.
I tried all sorts of things to get round this, and ended up doing a fresh insall from the original XP CD and then re installing the apps and SP2.
Good luck
Koenig
I personally would backup my stuff off the drive and re-install, XP doesn't like having so much hardware changed, because other drivers are installed it may cause conficts and running issues.
being such a big drive I would break it up into multiple partitions, its useful, because in the future if you need to reinstall windows, keep your data etc on a seperate partition then you won't need to use up DVD/CD-r/rw's backing up.
being such a big drive I would break it up into multiple partitions, its useful, because in the future if you need to reinstall windows, keep your data etc on a seperate partition then you won't need to use up DVD/CD-r/rw's backing up.
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