Changing to a new Computer using the same hard drive - any way for it to boot up?

[HitmanZ]

Hi guys,
Ok here is the problem, everytime I upgrade someones computer by installing a new mobo + cpu, windows xp never loads and halts at boot up. Of course this is feasible since the whole mobo changed which makes xp still load up it's original drivers for the old mobo. Is there any way where you can change the mobo and not have to reformat the whole hd again? I mean i want to keep the whole xp intact and all software the way it was.
I appriciate any replys. Thanks

[M11]

Hi guys,
Ok here is the problem, everytime I upgrade someones computer by installing a new mobo + cpu, windows xp never loads and halts at boot up. Of course this is feasible since the whole mobo changed which makes xp still load up it's original drivers for the old mobo. Is there any way where you can change the mobo and not have to reformat the whole hd again? I mean i want to keep the whole xp intact and all software the way it was.
I appriciate any replys. Thanks
There is. You can via safemode do a replacement for all of the drivers, provided you can manually remove all mobo drivers through a combination of an uninstaller/device manager. Unfortunately, I have not seen an automated tool to do this, and when I did it by hand it was ugly.However, it is much easier to reformat.

Not to mention on some machines safe mode won't even boot.

[HitmanZ]

Yes i tried that but it won't even boot during safe mode!

Do you think it will work if i take out all the mobo device drivers before i replace the mobo?

[M11]

Yes i tried that but it won't even boot during safe mode!

Do you think it will work if i take out all the mobo device drivers before i replace the mobo?
There is a chance, but it is slim. Remember that windows ships with drivers for various components, so it will install them automatically. In addition, Windows has a nasty habit of configuring the registry with mobo-specific settings, which would need to be tracked down. These include things such as AGP config, memory contoller config, BIOS config, etc. The bottom line is Microsoft does not advise that swaps be done. Trying to push XP out of its boundries and beyond its limits is not recommended. And as complex and obfuscated as drivers and the registry have become, it is nearly impossible to try and do what you are trying to do.

[S1nF1xx]

With Windows XP you will need to reformat if you want to use that drive as your OS drive in a different computer.

[ameoba]

Reinstall is always a good idea when you're changing hardware like that.

[Direwolf20]

Reformattting and reinstalling might be a PITA now, but it will probably save you a lot of headache later on. Who knows what crazy problems windows will have down the road when it suddenly and randomly realizes that its been running on a different system for the past 4 months.

[Sid]

Before you take the old system apart, throw the xp cd in the drive and from the popup window choose install xp. The next little window will ask what kind of install to do, select upgrade. The box will do what it has to and then restart. while its rebooting shut it off and make your hardware changes. When you restart it the system it will remove the old HAL and create a new one. You do not need to reinstall.

[OldPueblo]

Installing XP in repair mode will generally leave your software/customizations the way they are, but replace the drivers and operating system files. Boot from the XP cd, choose install, it will find the old install and then ask if you want to repair it.

http://www.overclockers.com/tips1155/
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B315341

[scottatwittenberg]

windows xp doesn't like to have too much hardware changed out from under it because of the registration/authentication thingy... so throwing it in a new comp won't work.. i tried it too.. but maybe Stu Pidasso 's idea will work...

[HitmanZ]

Thanks guys, especially OldPueblo and Stu Pidasso

The reason why i say that i need the old configs is that my customer's need them, not really me. I prefer to reformat and then install. They don't like that, they want all their info and configs saved the way it was before (picky, i know)
Thanks guys