Reinstall necessary or not when changing 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.

 

[Kento]

I'm not sure if you really need to reinstall or not. I've always heard you do after changing motherboards but i know people who haven't reinstalled and had no problems so i don't know for sure. I guess you would just have to try it and see.

If you want to spend some money I hear Norton Ghost does a good job a creating a drive image.

http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/

 

[bmac50]

Simply, YES it will. You will need the CD that comes with the mother board to add the newer drivers for things like AGP, etc. I have moved a hard drive from computer to computer and Windows always tries to find the new drivers for everything including the mother board sometimes. If the M/B is the same maker all you may need to do is update the drivers which are on the CD.

 

[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

 

[darranagl]

Shakenama has the right idea but do it in Safe mode (F8 at startup, then take option 3)

In Safe mode Windows shows ALL devices it thinks you have or may have.

Check all the devices in the System Properties (hard drive, Cd rom, sound etc), if there is any double ups, ie it shows two keyboards, delete them both.

If you have onboard sound check your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files for dos drivers.

And lastly, search your hard drive for any *.TMP or ~*.* files and delete them. This will get rid of any tempery files.