Thinking of upgrading my motherboard

[Christopher1]

I am thinking of upgrading my motherboard from a Socket 478 based one, to a AMD motherboard that can handle the newest processors from AMD.
The question I have is, what should I do before I remove the motherboard from the computer? I am hoping that I won't have to blow away my hard drive before installing the new motherboard, mainly because I only have OEM versions of Windows XP, and do NOT want to have to try and use them to install Windows from scratch, because they install the drivers that were needed for the OEM PC's motherboard as part of the install.

Is there any way I could: 1. Diable or uninstall all the motherboard drivers for the old motherboard, then shut down Windows, install the new motherboard and let it install the drivers for the new motherboard or generic ones onto the installation of Windows XP that I already did or 2. Install the drivers for the new motherboard BEFORE putting in the new motherboard, shut down, put in the new motherboard then boot up Windows XP and let it go from there.

Has anyone every tried scenario 2, and if so, how did they get it to work?
If I have to buy a retail version of Windows XP, I will, but I REALLY don't want to if I don't have to (Why spend 300 dollars when I already paid for the OEM version when I bought the computer?).

 

[Ockie]

Both those senarios can work, but I HIGHLY recommend a full format. Your not going to get the best out of your machine like that and you might have tons of errors or problems. Full formating on a new board/setup is really the only way to go.


But heck, try it, nothing to lose eh?

 

[supergeek]

Dude if u have to go option 1. that offers the best chance to avoid to many hassles, ideally as the other guy pointed out a clean reinstall with the new mobo installed is the best option, and becuase uo're only upgrading the mobo, having done this myself, windows will activate just find (u can make up to 5 core (i.e. cpu,mobo,hdd,gpu) hardware changes on any one pc before it is required that u contact microsoft) and remember u don't need to purchase the retail, just buy a new cpu,hdd or mobo and u can pickup another OEM copy of windows with the item.

 

[Christopher1]

Okay, sounds like the clean install option would be the best one. I just realized that I can get an OEM copy of Media Center Edition 2005, so I'm going to go with the clean install option (have to with that version of Windows XP).