I want to upgrade my motherboard and CPU but I saw in someone else's question about changing out motherboards that they were told that they might have to re-format or re-install windows. Is there any way around having to do that? I want to be able to use my old hard drive and keep all of the data I have on it. I don't know anything about fixing computers and I don't know where to look for power supply information or anything like that.
2007-09-10 05:10:44 · 10 answers · asked by asus2424 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
Yes JUST BEFORE you pull the hard drive out install your new mother board drivers on it from disk If your going to use a new video card either uninstall all drivers and video cards software and set your driver to standard vga or use the old card for a while and install the new one later on (might help avoid visiting Microsoft) Do this just before you shut down and remove hard drive NO REBOOTS ! NO RESTARTS !You may have to reactivate windows but your operating system and all software and settings will be the same Good luck with MS
2007-09-10 06:54:15 · answer #1 · answered by John O 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, you are more than likely going to have to at least reinstall Windows XP if you replace the motherboard. The only way you would not have to is if the new motherboard is very similar to the old one. What you need to do is get your original XP disk (the same one that is installed on your computer) and boot off of it when the computer starts. Go through the initial steps of installing Windows XP at the second step it will ask if you want to repair install. Do this at the second prompt, not the first one. If you repair all your programs, documents, etc should still be there. You will have to download all your Windows updates afterwards and install the new motherboard drivers.
Good luck.
2007-09-10 05:32:40 · answer #2 · answered by sarric 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Problem with it is that your hard drive is set up to run the drivers for the chipsets on the old motherboard, video cards Lans, sound etc. When you put it into a system with a new board with different chipsets you have problems. Sometimes it will boot but most of the time it won't. If you are just replacing the board you can get a board with the same northbridge and southbridge chipsets and you, hopefully, will be able to boot up. You will have to, even then, spend a lot of time in the device manager uninstalling stuff that the old board used and the new board doesn't. If you are upgrading to a newer board best thing would be to get a new hard drive and an Operating system and use your old drive as a storage drive. You're not going to damage anything trying it as long as you bear in mind that you may be buying a new OS. Windows will, hopefully, see your motherboard chipsets and install drivers for them if your boot goes that far. I would go into bios and disable onboard sound LAN etc as you first fire it up to minimize the amount of conflicts you have when you boot up. You will also want to, if you can, uninstall the video, sound, Lan drivers while hard drive is in old machine before you pull the drive. If you can't boot up on your new machine normally try it in safe mode and work on it there.
2007-09-10 05:28:12 · answer #3 · answered by s j 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Doubtful, Windows XP and above will refuse to boot if you make more than 3 changes to hardware in one go and the motherboard looks like a dozen different pieces of hardware on it's own. You could always use your old hard drive as a slave to a new drive to save your data.
2007-09-10 05:17:41 · answer #4 · answered by Mike C 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The thing they were referring to was the Unique Identifier that Microsoft generates based on the hardware in your system. When you change out more than one of these components the identifier will change...and you may get a windows is not valid message when you grab updates. If you legally own windows all you have to do is Call up Microsoft...they will ask you a few questions...and reset it. You should be good to go after that....
2007-09-10 05:19:23 · answer #5 · answered by Jordan Z 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is no real way around it. You *might* get lucky enough to have a bootable machine and be able to install the new drivers. But more likely the old drivers with your Windows install will simply not work on the new mobo and you'll need to reformat.
2007-09-10 05:18:35 · answer #6 · answered by Crypt 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The operating system is on your hard drive, not on the motherboard. What you might have to deal with could be some questions for the BIOS since the new BIOS will not start-off knowing your system hardware configuration.
2007-09-10 05:19:18 · answer #7 · answered by Rich Z 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Cautious maybe - it depends on how different the hardware is and if windows freaks out because of the hardware changes.
I have done it successfully - but alot of driver installation is needed on that first reboot so have your drivers ready.
2007-09-10 05:17:55 · answer #8 · answered by Creeva 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You either need a Vista installtion disk or a System Recovery disk. No other way to get Vista back on your computer
2016-05-21 03:22:37 · answer #9 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you can do it i have done it befour and it worked great its a hidden menu in the xp setup when you go through the process of installing xp go through asnormal untill you get to the partitions then highlight the one you want and press the letter "R" to repair it that should do the trick
2007-09-10 05:47:12 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋