Leaving the same OS with new mobo (XP pro)

[hamidjunior]

I wanna upgrade my motherboard and proc. If I plug in my old hard with OS on it..will it work? If it can, what steps I gotta do to work things out? Thanx

 

[Kibbo]

Do a repair install.

Boot from your CD, and when it gives you the option to repair or install, pick install. It should detect your installation in your c: partition automatically, and give you the option to repair over it. You'll have to reinstall all your drivers, though.

Edit: There's a step in there that I'm missing, but I can't remember what it is. If you are comfortable tinkering in there, go for it. Just be careful not to reformat any drives.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: hamidjunior
I wanna upgrade my motherboard and proc. If I plug in my old hard with OS on it..will it work? If it can, what steps I gotta do to work things out? Thanx

If the HAL is the same, all you'll need to do is change the IDE drivers to 'PCI Standard IDE' drivers, or something like that, the last time you boot up the old PC, and you'll be able to boot into XP on the new PC and then install all of your other drivers.

If the HAL's not the same, try the repair install idea.

 

[hamidjunior]

Thanx, I'll try that. Just hope all of my Sims 2, Warcraft and Office settings ain't gonna go haywire

Well about HAL (hardware abstraction layer?), the same things from my old config will be pretty much only 2 HDD and soundcard. Upgrading from XP 2600+ KT600 to AMD 64 3200+, with new RAM, Video Card and few extras.

 

[timswim78]

There is a detailed guide here:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=772307

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: timswim78
There is a detailed guide here:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=772307

The advice on the hardforum is bad advice.

For single-user swaps of just the motherboard, there is absolutely no reason to run Sysprep. It doesn't add or do anything you can't already do (at the consumer level) better and easier. It adds a complexity step, and you don't get anything from it. You can do everything that Sysprep is doing (in the scenario given on hardforum) just by changing the IDE driver to "PCI Standard IDE Driver" prior to shutting down the old machine for the last time.

Repair install is a last resort.

 

[thegorx]

Upgrading from XP 2600+ KT600 to AMD 64 3200+, with new RAM, Video Card and few extras.

Why are you upgrading ?

We all know why

Do a clean install, why go thru the upgrade and have your system all junked up
you're most likely not gonna get any good performance without a clean install in such an upgrade

your motherboard and CPU are so - totally different, it doesn't matter if everything else is the same it will all be connected differently because the motherboard is different.
Windows setup will not clean up the old settings and if some of the old settings get tied into the new setup you will at the least have a crippled system.

an example is I just replaced a motherboard that was pretty much the same as the old one without doing a clean install.
I even loaded the SYSTEM hive in another system and cleared out most of the hardware settings
It seemed all fine until I tried to update the network drivers which were listed as the ones from the old motherboard but I couldn't update the drivers, I kept getting an error.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: thegorx

Upgrading from XP 2600+ KT600 to AMD 64 3200+, with new RAM, Video Card and few extras.

Why are you upgrading ?

We all know why

Do a clean install, why go thru the upgrade and have your system all junked up
you're most likely not gonna get any good performance without a clean install in such an upgrade

your motherboard and CPU are so - totally different, it doesn't matter if everything else is the same it will all be connected differently because the motherboard is different.
Windows setup will not clean up the old settings and if some of the old settings get tied into the new setup you will at the least have a crippled system.

an example is I just replaced a motherboard that was pretty much the same as the old one without doing a clean install.
I even loaded the SYSTEM hive in another system and cleared out most of the hardware settings
It seemed all fine until I tried to update the network drivers which were listed as the ones from the old motherboard but I couldn't update the drivers, I kept getting an error.

This simply isn't right!

The HALs have to match. If the HALs between the 2 systems match, you can easily move the hard drive from one machine to the other, and it will work just fine. Windows will plug-and-play and find the correct drivers (assuming they're built into Windows) or ask you for the right drivers (if not), and will go from there. No 'crippled system' involved at all. This is what system manufacturers do in order to put the same software load on thousands of PCs - they use Sysprep and custom setup files to install the OS on thousands of hard drives based on a single image. Obviously, it works just fine.

Moving System hives is a bad idea and can lead to all kinds of problems...better just to let XP handle the move. If the system is unbootable, confirm the hard drive controller is suitable to boot the new hardware, and confirm that the HAL is the same.

 

[PlatinumGold]

http://episteme.arstechnica.co...09774&m=1400925745

check out the link. arstechnica has the best howto on this that i've seen.

 

[boshuter]

Back up your games and office setting and do a fresh install. Why do all that upgrading and not start with a fresh install? It can be done, and it may work out ok, but it's not a good idea. Get rid of all the junk that has built up in the registry and everywhere else, it will more than likely save you some headaches down the road.

 

[thegorx]

why does the HAL have to match ?

In which hive are the services located ?

Which Key in the registry shows you the name of the video card drivers installed ?




actually most restore disks don't just load a image with a OS with programs preinstalled
and I'm sure they don't use the same image for different systems
although the do use the same image on different variations of the same system that's why you can often find another video card listing in the registry.

 

[infini]

What exactly is the HAL?

 

[Oldtimer]

I guess I was just lucky. I upgraded to new MOBO, CPU, and video card with no problems. Of course MS wanted a new activation. Even that was no problem. I'd say go for the simple way first, then if you have problems, get hairy. BTW went from ASUS PB533 with 2.4 P4 and ATI 9200 to ASUS P4P800SE and 3.0E CPU and ATI AIW 9600XT. Maybe keeping things in the family made the difference.

Good Luck,
OTC

 

[Insidious]

Try here


-Sid


edit; OOPS I see someone already linked you there.....