Does replacing the motherboard affect the hard drive or my windows xp?

Question

I have a pentium 4 2.5 ghz
and I want to replace the motherboard to one that supports more powerful CPUs like duo core

Does replacing the motherboard affect the hard drive or my copy of windows xp which has no CD, it is allready installed on the hard drive, and there is a system restore feature by hitting F10 when it is restarted, so im guessing that if everything is deleted I would still be able to recover the fatory default copy of windows xp, I wouldnt mind that but I would prefer to keep my files.

Answer 1

Your hard drive isn't affected, but your install of XP will definitely suffer some problems. When you install XP on a system there are hundreds (if not thousands) of adjustments that are made to enable XP to "talk" to your particular hardware setup. When you plug your c: drive into a new motherboard you're essentially moving your entire system into a new environment and all of the adjustments that XP made to talk to your old chipset and drivers and so on are different. At best, your new setup will work with no major flaws that you notice. At worst, your new setup will crash violently and take all of your data with it. My advice is to back up all your critical data from your old system, perform a clean install of XP, and then migrate your old files to the new system. Any other plan of action is risking your data and not a good idea, IMHO.

Answer 2

I hate to be a wet blanket, but there is a good chance that your factory preload will NOT have the right drivers for a different motherboard.

If you want to save your files, copy them EXTERNALY to CD's or other media BEFORE you start the changeover.

Replacing the MB will NOT affect the HD, or XP; HOWEVER, the modern Motherboards almost ALWAYS come with a "system" disc that contains the "special" drivers THAT board needs.
The factory loaded the drivers for the MB that your system used, and changing it may not permit things to work sufficiently to get windows to start.

IF you get lucky, and it starts, then you will be able to load the "system" disk that comes with your new MB. Of course, this leaves the "old" drivers taking up space on the HD.

That is one of the primary reasons I assemble my own rather than buying a pre-loaded unit. (I USED to buy units until they started Pre-loading AND NOT giving you copies of the program discs!!)

Good luck

Answer 3

Nothing happens to the hard drive or Windows when you replace the motherboard. You have to make sure the motherboard supports your type of hard drive, though.

Answer 4

You will encounter wrong configuration errors and will re-install all necessary drivers when you boot up your computer using a new motherboard.

To be safe, backup up your files before trying to replace your motherboard.

Answer 5

You have to verify that your mother board is configured to match the old mother board. I can give you a link that deals with hard drive problems. Some hard drive problems can be easily fixed yourself by using easily available tools. I found the info at http://fixit.in useful

Answer 6

as long as you move the processor and get an Intel capable motherboard it won't affect the hard drive or xp

Answer 7

When you change the Mother board , Your hard disk again has to be formated because the bios and other date will be changed. Try to take back up before doing any thing.

Answer 8

You should be A OK as long as everything is compatible.