Have to change Mobo, can I get around having to reinstall OS?

S

Sprtfan

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 23, 2007
Messages
327
I want to change from a Gigabyte P35-DS3R to a Gigabyte EP45-UD3R. The OS I'm using is Vista 64. I know that you could use sysprep in WinXP and I think there is something similar in Vista. Has anyone ever done it? What steps should I take to make the move go smooth? Thanks

Let me know if this should be in the OS section instead of the motherbaords.
 
I'm not sure exactly how to do it, but I know you go to device manager and show hidden devices in the View menu, then you have to uninstall a ton of stuff.
 
I did this once, however I went from a BFG 780i motherboard to an eVGA 780i a few years ago. I just swapped the parts and let WinXP figure it out. I didn't have any problems, but they were the same series MB and probably both reference designs. I didn't have any issues though, so you may be just fine.
 
I'll probably run sysprep and uninstall all of the drivers before I change. I guess if I have enough problems I can always reinstall.
 
Vista and 7 are much better about it then XP. I just moved my 7 installation from a 780i board to a x58 board and on the first boot it just redeteced everything and rebooted a few times to isntall the drives. I wasn't sure if it was going to work, but figured I'd give it a shot before doing a full install anyways.

It isn't quite as good as just being able to delete the HKLM hive in Windows 9x, but it was much better then I expected.
 
Thanks, I'll give it a try this afternoon and it sounds like it should work out ok
 
I'd recommend uninstalling the motherboard drivers before shutting down to make the switch.

IIRC, you should be fine as long as you're not upgrading your processor too.
 
vista is much like 98 in that aspect, in safe mode remove all hardware drivers, swap hardware and let it boot, vista will rebuild, I have done this many many times for customers of mine, ALWAYS make a backup of what you need prior to do it
 
noobman said:
I'd recommend uninstalling the motherboard drivers before shutting down to make the switch.

IIRC, you should be fine as long as you're not upgrading your processor too.
Click to expand...

I was going to upgrade the CPU from a E6600 to a Q6600 at the same time. It might be easier to reinstall than have to install and then replace the CPU.
 
I upgraded from E-8400 to I-7

I uninstalled video,sound, and a bunch of otrher things in DM then shut her off.

I installed new MB and then got to windows and it asked me to intsall drivers and stuff.

Then call the 800 number to activate windows again.

I had all my stuff still intact. Mail,Bookmarks,programs and game and shit. Pictures ect
 
Great, I'll make sure to back everything up first and give it a try. Now I just have to have my wife leave me alone long enough so I can actually give it a try. Thanks for the help.
 
Might try a Microsoft utility called sysprep. Basically, takes all the hardware specific drivers out of your install so when you reboot Vista will install all the new drivers for the new hardware. Just a more complete way of doing what SereLaw said.

Haven't used it myself. Good luck with the wife giving you time...
 
Sprtfan said:
I'll probably run sysprep and uninstall all of the drivers before I change. I guess if I have enough problems I can always reinstall.
Click to expand...

Mackowitz said:
Might try a Microsoft utility called sysprep. Basically, takes all the hardware specific drivers out of your install so when you reboot Vista will install all the new drivers for the new hardware. Just a more complete way of doing what SereLaw said.

Haven't used it myself. Good luck with the wife giving you time...
Click to expand...

good idea.:)
 
I've sysprep through 3 skts, socket 462, socket 939, and now socket AM3. It hasn't failed me yet. I've had more trouble changing video cards than mobo's.
 
I upgraded from a 780G to a 790GX chipset mobo without requiring an OS install. Vista may be able to handle the different chipsets between your motherboards.

I would bet it's not required,

Good luck either way!
 
I'm not sure you'd have to do anything. The P35 and P45 chipsets are almost identical, so the only "change" would be the ICH drivers. If you have the latest Intel chipset driver already installed, it should just pick it up.

I went from a X38 to a G31 to a P45 and never did anything other than swap boards. No problems.

Edit: This was with XP Pro.
 
Last edited:
I just took a Vista 64 install from a dead P45 board to a X38 board. All I did was boot into safe mode and let it re-install the board drivers. It's been working fine everyday since. Vista is much more tolerant of these sort of things.
 
sgrinavi said:
Why would you want to? It's a good opportunity to clean things up.
Click to expand...

Between having a limited amount of time and the pain involved in reactivating a few of the programs I would rather not. Also, I just did a full reinstall a few months ago so it really doen't need much cleaning up yet.
 
as you might have guessed I've never done it before. Really worryed about issues further down the road. I believe others are correct. If you uninstall the device drivers then it would make it much more probilble to work without a hitch
 
Gillbot over at AT posted this

Do I have to reinstall windows? The Answers HERE!

Migrating from one machine to another, the do's and dont's.
Since I see this question get asked multiple times a week, I thought i'd create a little thread with some info and answers.

First off, if you are switching from one piece of hardware to another, follow these steps:
1) BACKUP! I don't care how many times another user successfully swapped from one piece to another, things can and WILL happen so keep a backup! I don't care if you are simply swapping graphics cards, if your data is THAT important, BACKUP FIRST!
2) A fresh install on the new machine is ALWAYS the best option. If you choose not to do a fresh install, you are left with the following options:

A) Sysprep


B) Plug-N-Pray


C) Setup/Repair


Lets dive into Sysprep:
Basically, Sysprep is a Microsoft tool that "resets" the configuration data on the machine to allow OEM's and system manufacturers the ability to create a master image to be used on multiple similar machine configurations.
What does this mean for me?
Since it resets the configuration data, you can use it to migrate a hard drive from one machine to the next while keeping your data and programs intact. I am not going to go into a detailed "how-to" but I will point you to the Microsoft Sysprep support pages so you can equip yourself with knowledge and perform the functions you need to successfully migrate your data.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302577
http://technet.microsoft.com/e.../library/bb457073.aspx

I have used sysprep successfully to migrate a hard drive from my old socket A system through about 12 hardware changes up to it's current home in an Intel socket 775 system. While the system is quite sluggish due to all the extra bloat it has carried from system to system, all data and programs are intact which is more important to me than overall system speed.

Lets touch on the "Plug-N-Pray" method:
I'm not going to cover this because there isn't a very good reason to use it with a proper tool like sysprep available. Basically you pull the drive from your old system, place it into the new system and let windows completely reconfigure itself. Some people go so far as to remove or uninstall the hardware in the device manager before migrating the drive over. Either way, it is risky especially without a backup and I don't recommend it.

The setup/Repair Method:
I'm not going to cover the Setup/Repair method as I have never gotten it to work properly. If anyone cares to add more info about this section, I'd be happy to add it in here. Basically, you place your old drive into the new system and boot from the install CD. Choose repair and use the repair console to fix your installation or you can also run setup over top of your existing install.
Click to expand...
 
I do not recommend it. Fresh mobo, chances are all the core components of the system will be different. Just asking for trouble down the road if not immediately and a performance hit.
Wipe it clean, you should format and get clean and fresh every couple of months anyway. Nothing beats a crisp fresh install
 
Clean and fresh every couple months anyway?

Even tho many have said That changing out MB,CPU,RAM have had no ill effects.

Ran normal in everyway. Thats why the new drivers are installed.

You disagree.Hey I can respect that. BUT then you say fresh and clean every couple of months.. Way over the top. Nonsense. A waste of time.. Do you have a license to fish here? 7.4 years @ H.

I am questioning your Credibility now.. :) Just pulling your leg man.
 
I've swapped many mobo's without reinstalling OS , REMOVE video, sound and chipset drivers, MOST IMNPORTANTLY SET IDE DRIVERS TO STANDARD IDE DRIVER BEFORE SHUTTING DOWN.
 
^^^ That hard drive trick only works if you're not using RAID or AHCI.
 
SereLaw said:
Clean and fresh every couple months anyway?

Even tho many have said That changing out MB,CPU,RAM have had no ill effects.

Ran normal in everyway. Thats why the new drivers are installed.

You disagree.Hey I can respect that. BUT then you say fresh and clean every couple of months.. Way over the top. Nonsense. A waste of time.. Do you have a license to fish here? 7.4 years @ H.

I am questioning your Credibility now.. :) Just pulling your leg man.
Click to expand...

It's not a strict rule, but I usually end up reinstalling 3-4 times a year. More this year trying out versions of win7 as my main os.
Vista seems to not have its speed degrade quite as bad as xp did, and I expect 7 will be even better in that regard.
Still nothing beats a fresh format and reinstall for getting your boot/shutdown times down and snappyness of the system up.

Old dogs like me are never wrong eh? :) I'm actually 25, I've been posting on and off here, genmay, and o/c forums for almost 10 years now! The pc scene is particularly great right now, you can build some sick ass amd systems for practically free, years ago top of the line performance like this cost a huge premium
 
Here is one of the best threads on doing a MB swap without having to reinstall the OS. So long as the OS can read the boot hard drive and get into Windows, you're probably ok. That's the reason for changing the device driver to the generic one in hardware system. You probably won't have any problem, without doing anything, going from a P35 to a P45 MB, because they're both recent Intel chipsets. Going from different chipsets like Nvidia to Intel, or AMD to Intel CPUs often require that the old drivers be uninstalled first.

Unless you're installing and uninstalling lots of apps and games, or picking up some strange diseases, there should be no need to reinstall the OS on a periodic basis.
 
Went from MSI to ASUS and changed 6000+ to 720BE and did not reinstall operating system.Got lucky I guess.
 
I'll be doing this soon, taking my secondary from a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 to a (probably) ASUS P5Q-Pro. Will be backing up beforehand to try different methods if I don't get the desired results, just hope it goes well.

Unfortunately performance is important to me, so if none of the methods migrate me without hindering my speed then I'll be doing a fresh wipe. I end up wiping my various machines at least once or twice a year, so it's not something I'm unused to, just tired of the headaches.
 
I ran sysprep before making the switch and the computer booted up and ran with the new motherboard with no problems. I had to enter my license again and make a new user name but nothing to major. (Old user name was still on the comp)Thanks for the help
 
Okay, let me make sure I have this right:

I have an Asus Rampage Formula and a Q9550 in service now under Vista SP2. I have an i7 920 and an MSI x58 Pro on my couch. Assuming I don't nuke-and-pave (as much as I don't want to do it this time around, there's nothing safer), all I need to do is run
Code: 
sysprep /generalize /oobe
and that will wipe out all my system-specific drivers (not sure about the HAL) in advance of a swapout, assuming no random freakouts?
 
That's about it.

I did not use sys prep and it worked...See my post from above.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top