Install a A7N8X to replace 8KHA+ w/o reinstalling WinXP possible?

[kennl66]

I just bought an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe to replace my dying Epox 8KHA+(memory slots problem). I was wondering if it will work by just swapping the new mobo in and not reinstalling Windows XP? I read from others that you can do this, WindowsXP will repair everything and just install the new drivers for the mobo. What do you guys suggest?

I hate reinstalling all my hardwares and software(updates).

 

[chizow]

Yes, I did it a couple weeks ago, same boards involved. See thread below.


Chiz

Step-by-Step on how to go about changing boards w/out Re-installing XP

 

[jpbushido99]

I tried that but I did loose some functionality, ie slower frame rates in games, slower boot times etc. so I just coppied all my stuff onto another hard drive, and did a fresh install fixed all my problems. Very very fast.

 

[petz]

Heres a much better way to switch motherboards under Win2K or WinXP without reinstalling Windoz:
1. Backup your C drive, or, at the very least, all data files on C drive. Its very unlikely you could screw up the other partitions, which is one reason I like to keep C only 4 GB or so and instlal software on other drives.
2. Acquire a Promise IDE controller, follow directions to add it to your existing system (old motherboard). Usually this means installing the controller, not connected to any drives and inserting the Promise floppy when prompted by the OS.
3. After turning off, reconnect your IDE drives to the Promise controller -- it should reboot with no problems
4. Now move everything over to the new motherboard, with IDE drives still hooked up to Promise. Its probably a good idea to delete the USB devices, default IDE controller and anything with the chipset name in your system devices, although I forgot to delete the IDE controller (don't delete the Promise!) and the procedure still worked.
5. When you reboot, Windows will be able to boot and it will detect the new chipset and devices. Its probably better to cancel out of everything and run the motherboard "install" CD
6. Reboot, and check that everything looks OK. Then turn it off, remove the Promise controller and hook everything back up to the motherboard IDE ports.
7. You can now unacquire the Promise controller

I successfully moved from an K7S5A to an Asus A7N8X using this procedure. The method of deleting system devices and then trying an installation "repair" DID NOT WORK, but this method did. It it won't boot in step 5, try booting the Windows CD and repairing the installation. That may be a more fail-safe way, and you stand a much better chance of a successful repair, since Windows does not NEED the device drivers of the new motherboard to access the boot device and CDROM.

Probably any PCI IDE controller will work. The basic idea is that Windows needs to have any device drivers for its boot drive and the CDROM drive already installed when switching motherboards.

 

[KF]

>I successfully moved from an K7S5A to an Asus A7N8X using this procedure.

I successfully moved from an K7S5A to an Asus A7N266-VM using this procedure:

Unplug K7S5A. Plug In A7N266-VM. When XP boots it will take longer. It is redoing everything.

I had intended to boot XP in safe mode and uninstall/remove ALL drivers, but I slipped pushing F8 and so I had to wait till XP finished booting so as not to crash. Since it worked, I left it. Naturally I had to install the nForce drivers, since XP doesn't have them. I detected no issues while torture testing.