Installing New Motherboard

[Garyeag]

If I install a new motherboard, will my hard drive work correctly and retain it's contents or will I need to reinstall everything. i.e. will windows will recognise the motherboard as a new device or is this beyond it?

If I need to reinstall everything, is there anyway to store an image on-line or using a CD. I have PowerQuest Drive Image, but is an early version which does not support CD rewriters.

 

[paparazi]

You will be very lucky to get away without a reinstall although it's not unheard of, but to be honest it's just not worth trying,you are likely to get all sorts of reported errors, resign yourself to a clean install and look for someway of saving all your important files to disc or zip and then write them back on to the clean drive.

 

[Guest_imported]

A lot will depend upon the operating system you're running, and the mobo you're currently using and the board you're transfering to. As a general rule I find NT4 the easiest op system to transfer between mobos. W98 is fairly good but doesn't find the CD-ROM on the first run, W95 keeps asking silly questions, and W2K PRO is almost impossible unless you've got a Promise PCI controller card you can add in, then it's a doddle. By all means make an image of your drive "as is", then try attaching to the new mobo. At worst it won't work and you trash what's on the disk (very unlikely), and at best, you'll save yourself a lot of time.

Good luck!

ROGER - GØAOZ.

 

[shakenama]

New motherboard, old hard drive ?? Try this

The problem will be that the drivers installed in the OS will not match what's on the motherboard. What you need to do is remove all of the drivers in Windows RIGHT BEFORE you replace the MoBo

First, back up all of your data. Then do this:
1. Right-click on My Computer. Select Properties.
2. Click on the Device Manager tab.
3. Remove ALL of the devices in the Window.

After you have done this, shut down your machine, install the new Mobo in your computer. Have all of your driver disks ready. When you start up, Windows' Plug and Play feature will look for the drivers for your new (and old) hardware. This is where you'll need the disks to reinstall the drivers.

You shouldn't have to reinstall the OS but if this doesn't work then you may have to.

Curtesy of the guys at Tech-TV at

http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/

Hope this helps ! s-)
Shawn

 

[Guest_imported]

Interesting to read Shawn's message, as I have never ever bothered to remove any or all of the device drivers before shifting HDDs to new mobos. The only failure I have ever had was with W2K PRO.

However, it would still be interesting to know GARYEAG's op system...

ROGER - GØAOZ.

 

[tonysms]

This helps in some cases:
1) Boot with Floppy
2) type: sys c:
3) Reboot with no Floopy

Voila!!! your Hard drive Works NOW as before...

 

[p51d]

Hi,

I've changed my hard disk between PC's and then back again no problem without re-installing. I use Win98 OS.

When i switched the Hard disk to my other PC with a different mobo etc, win98 will prompt to install the relevant drivers (hdd and floppy controllers etc) for that PC etc and work no problem. No need to re-install everything.

Worked just fine for me anyway.