CPU/MOBO upgrade questions

[NINaudio]

Ok, here's a brief rundown. I'm running a sata raid 1 currently and am upgrading to a new mobo/cpu. I'd like to not have to reinstall EVERYTHING again....lol. What ar emy options? Is there a way for me to install windows on one of my current drives with the new mobo, then transfer the other programs over from the 2nd drive? Thanks for your help!

More info if needed....the drives are boot drives. I will be switching to an Asus A8V deluxe/AMD 64 3200+.

 

[mbcrump]

I'd reinstall windows, IMHO.

 

[NINaudio]

well, would I be able to reinstall windows on one drive and then copy all my program files and user profiles over from the 2nd drive?

 

[ggjb]

Sure, just as long it isn't a RAID-0 configuration. As we all know, RAID-1 is just mirroring on 2 or more drives. So yes, you can format one drive and use the other as storage.

 

[stevty2889]

Just change the IDE controller to standard controler and do a repair install. You can't just copy the programs over and have them work, all the registry links would be missing.

 

[NINaudio]

Originally posted by: stevty2889
Just change the IDE controller to standard controler and do a repair install. You can't just copy the programs over and have them work, all the registry links would be missing.

Would I have to reinstall windows on one drive first and then do a repair install from the other drive?

 

[NINaudio]

Anybody? I'm hoping to do it tonight if I can.

 

[stevty2889]

You wouldn't have to install windows on another drive first to do a repair install. Hook up the drive that already has windows on it, and try the repair install. It's not guranteed to work, but if it does, it will save you good bit of time, since all your programs will still be installed. Just go in to device manager and change the IDE controller to a standard controller prior to taking the drive out of your old PC, as that seems to greatly increase the success rate of repair installs working. May also want to change your video card to standard as well, if you will be using a differant video card.

 

[NINaudio]

Well, the new mobo/cpu didn't come today, so looks like I'll be doing it tomorrow or over the weekend.

I will be using the same video card, but I'll change it anyway, just to be on the safe side.. So what I should do right before I make the upgrade is disable the raid and then change the sata controller to the standard one, power down, then reinstall everything on the new mobo, and on boot up, use the windows install disc to do the repair installation, right? I have win xp pro w/sp1 on disc, will that recognize sata drives?

Thanks for your help so far! I'm fairly new to all this, my current pc is the first one I've built myself, and I just started it from scratch cause the old one was on Windows 98! So yeah, that's why I need a complete walk-through.

Thanks again!

 

[stevty2889]

Yep, just run windows setup from the disc and do a repair install. Just install on 1 drive first, and then you can put in your second drive and set up your raid 1. Not sure if your motherboard will allow the SATA drive to be recognized, so I would have the drivers ready on a floppy disk just in case.

 

[NINaudio]

How would I go about getting the drivers onto a floppy? And would I first install the drivers from the floppy and then do a repair install from windows?

Thanks again for your help!

 

[stevty2889]

You should be able to download the drivers from the motherboard manufactures website if they don't provide them for you. Sometimes the motherboard will have a floppy come with it, and the drivers are also usualy on the CD, so you could copy them from the CD to the floppy. When you the windows cd is starting up, there will be a place where it says press F6 to install raid drivers or something to that nature, and that will come up way before the part where you choose to do a repair install. Also, don't do the first one that says repair, that will take you to a dos like environment that isn't all that usefull, continue past there like you are going to install windows, and then the option for repair install will come up.

 

[NINaudio]

Ahhh....great, thank you very much!!!