Can you replace a mobo and cpu without reinstalling windows?

E

ehZn

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jun 9, 2004
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Title says it all. The rig in my sig is great, but I feel like I could get a whole lot more if I just spent another $350 on a 3.0C and a nice 800 fsb mobo so I could really put that corsair ram to use.

Would it be possible to just swap out the mobo with the new cpu in it, reconnect the same peripherals, and boot from the same primary drive without reinstalling windows?
 
You need a utility called sysprep, google for it and run it before you make the switch.
 
Technically, its possible. However, I wouldn't reccomend it - you could miss a file and have your OS go nuts and crash - the motherboard has dozens of different ports and devices that windows uses and has drivers for, and it would probably be a safe bet that you will miss at least one.

If you are worried about losing your files, just backup whatever you want and format, you will be much happier in the end with a new fresh copy of windows
 
Thanks. I kinda figured it wouldn't be the best idea in the world, I was just trying to avoid a reformat.

Vertigo, have you used sysprep before? How much work is it to use, and what does it do?
 
I can vouch for my experience last night, you cannot go from a pentium 4 2.53 ghz + mobe to an AMD Athlon 64 + mobe without having to reinstall windows. I thought Windows XP would be smart enough to detect the changes, but it wouldn't even boot to a command prompt. Needless to say about 6 hours later I had most of my programs reinstalled and my data files copied over. I sure wish I would have know this before I started! Good Luck!
 
I believe that it is somewhat dependant on the motherboard chipset. I have swapped out multiple times with my current commuter (epox 8rda3+), even converting it from an 8rda+. I had to do this swap when I first changed motherboard types and then second (and third) when the motherboard fried (by plugging in a ps2 mouse during boot :mad: ) and got replacements to make the sucker work again.

Now, I know this does not always work, because at work, we were testing a new motherboard to make sure it functions properly with out software. I replaced the current board with just a newer version of the same board. The result of this was that the hard drive had to be cloned (all previous doings of the same operation, motherboard swapping, resulted in a functioning operating system)
 
You can do the swap provided a few conditions are met. One is the motherboards need the same vendor ID code. So all Abit boards should have the same vendor ID. The cpu can't change too much. It may not change at all. But I know that it has to be the same brand. So you can't have an Abit Intel system and go to an Abit AMD based machine and NOT re-install.

Also the motherboard chipset can change but only within the same family. So i865 to i875 has always worked for me, i845 to i875 doesn't do the job.

Sysprep with the mini-setup and -pnp options make things easier. It tells Windows to re-detect hardware, and mini-setup keeps you from having to answer as many questions during the Windows setup process. So theres fewer steps. Although the PNP portion takes alot of time to complete.

Also with a corporate code Windows isn't as picky about your hardware changes because corporate codes don't require activation.
 
This is probably a lucky fluke, but here's what happened to me.

I was overclocking my old xp2600, was in windows and it basically crapped out (believe it died from overvoltage). So the next time I would boot, I wold have gotten the boot menu (where it says safe mode and so on.) So I booted into safe mode, let it find it's way around, rebooted into my normal windows and all was well, though I will be reinstalling soon.

Can't beat a fresh install free of crap files :)
 
I just went from an Abit NF7S/AMD 2800 Barton to an Asus K8NE Del/AMD 3200 Newcastle. Graphics card changed too but still nvidia (5600FX to 6800 Ultra GS).

I went into safe mode (press f5 at boot up) and changed the chipset drivers etc. I will end up doing a reformat as I also have a couple more Raptors so will split OS and firewall etc on single Raptor then games etc on a RAID 0 set up. Still it got me up and going today and I will reformat over the weekend when I have more time.
 
you CAN run the repair and won't lose any of your installed proggies etc... you'll have to reaload all your drivers, i've done it may times before

i recommend: remove all drivers for hardware other than what's on your board, then boot from the windows cd and select repair half an hour later you're done! just reinstall yer drivers.

oh don't use the console repair use the other one
 
Ok so how do I do this? I have a older 13 GB hard disk that was on a Gigabyte board and I bought a new ASUS board, and now I want to recover the information on the drive.
Do you mean boot with the XP CD then choose Recovery Console? When I get in Recovery Console what exactly do I type in the make the hard disk work? I just want to make it work long enough to recover some data then I will reformat the drive later. I just need to know exactly what command to type in to make it work, thanks a lot. :)
 
Went from a 3.06 ghz P4 (533fsb) on an Asus P4T533 mobo using PC1066 Dual channel rambus onto an Abit IC7-Max 3 mobo using 1 stick of 512 meg Kingston HyperX PC3200.

OS didn't have a problem rolling over to the new setup. Course, the stupid thing kept asking for my RAID controller drivers, even though I installed them like 3 times. My OS was on 2 x 120 gig WD SE (RAID 0) on an Adaptec 1200A raid controller.

I rolled with the OS until my Chaintech 6800 vidcard came in. Then I reloaded. There was a significant lag with the OS. Everything took a couple seconds longer to do. From a window instantly opening up, to waiting a couple secs for it. I'd go with a new OS reload.
 
Like they said technically it is possible. I was wondering why my upgrade worked till some one mentioned something about the vendor code which makes sense i guess.
I went from an abit vp6 dual 800mhz coppermine processors , 512mb pc 133 to an abit ic7g ,3ghz pentium 4, 512 ddr 400. I didnt have any hiccups but had to install all the drivers for the mb which is to be expected anyway.
 
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