Changing MOBO - Re-install OS?
 

I'm going to be changing my Motherboard in a few days. Will I need to re-load the OS (Windows XP) or should it just pick up the new hardware and carry on working?

Never swapped out a MOBO on a live OS load so a bit unsure.

Cheers
Chump

depends, most times it will blue screen and you have to do a repair etc.. best is to back your data and re-install from fresh.

Backup your data and see what happens. Most of the time XP will boot up, detect all the new stuff and install drivers for it all. It would be a good idea to have all the latest drivers for your graphics card etc to hand incase they need to be reinstalled.

It depends. If both use the same make of chipset (both are VIA, or both are Intel etc) then you should have no problems apart from Windows flashing up loads of errors and demanding to reload drivers. If they use different chipsets then you should unload any drivers you loaded on the old motherboard before shutting down for the last time. Unless they are Intel in which case leave them alone. But you may yet have the whole reboot crash out, particularly with Windows 2K.

If you are going over to RAID or SATA you will have troubles - it won't work unless the controller is identical. In any case back up everything important. I tend to run two partitions: one with OS and apps, the other with files, downloads, etc. That way the second partition is always there (unless I go to/from RAID etc anyway).


M

I have always had to reinstall for a mobo change.

Darren

For me, I've never had to re-install, this current XP build is attached to it's fourth MB.

You will probably have to re-activate XP tho as it detects hardware changes and after a threshold, you have to re-activate just in case you're cloning disks. MB changes usually amount to enough to trigger....

I reinstall from scratch when putting a new motherboard in.

Last time i tried to do it without reinstalling, windows got so excited about all the new hardware it found that it wet itself, then slipped on the puddle it made, and fell over. I ended up reinstalling from scratch.

So now I just skip the messing about and go straight for a reinstall.

John.

Reinstall, or dump Windoze and install Linux instead. :)