Swapping Mobos Without Re-installing OS

[Mike360000]

Hello All,
Now as most of you know, I am getting a P4 cpu soon and I will have to change motherboards. My problem is lazinessness more than anything else. Plus the fact that I don't wish to spend the next 4 days re-installing Windows98 and reloading all my
programs. It's just so much.

Anyhow what I am wondering is this. Since I have a BE62-r2 Raid right now and I am going to a BL7 Raid, I would like to be able to move my hard drive, with its' Windows 98 installation and programs intact to the new motherboard. I know that there some files such as the HighPoint 370 files and the AGP files that are already on my BE6-2 Raid, so I am wondering what kind of problems will I encounter trying to get this straightened out when and if I can move it to the BL7 Raid motherboard? Would the HighPoint 370 Raid files work from the old Be6-2 Raid on the BL7 Raid? And what about the AGP files for the BE6-2 Raid; Would they work also, or should I try to re-install the BL7 files? If so, what process should I attempt to try to add these new files? And if so; Should I track down and individually remove the old BE6-2 Raid files and HP 370 files first?

Any first hand experiences or help in general would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Mike Lamb

[Dark Illusion]

I would *highly* advise against doing that. The OS uses drivers specific to that mobo..and while win98 might detect and install new drivers you're certain to muck something up. Your system will probably be crash happy and you'll end up having to fresh install anyways.

Then again. I remember there was a file you are suppose to delete for mobo transfers..but for the life of me, I can't remember. Win98 is ancient=P

[TC]

You might get away with it, but chances are something will get screwed up. I'd say back up your data and see what it does, but if you get some weird results your best bet is to run a fresh install.

[Mike360000]

"Then again. I remember there was a file you are suppose to delete for mobo transfers..but for the life of me, I can't remember. Win98 is ancient=P"

Awl, you ain't gonna just leave me hanging are you? :(
I never knew there was a file that done such a thing, really?
Now if anyone has a clue to this, I'm all ears! :D

Anyhow, I know what you all are meaning by being better off doing a complete re-install. And actually I think you're right. But I have a backup hard drive with a mirror copy of my main drive, so I'm not worried about losing anything, and if it doesn't work out, all I would be out is a very little amount of time compared to re-installing my OS and all my progs.

Boy it gives me the chills to think I'd have to spend another 4 days re-installing Win98 and all my progs! Had a virus back in June and ended up re-installing everything 4 times within a month. I bout went crazy!

Cheers,
Mike Lamb

[MikeTimbers]

Well, you could try deleting all the items in the Device Manager. Then change the motherboard.

But I go along with the others. You would be better advised to do a full re-install since you are changing so fundamental a component.

[batboy]

I've done motherboard swaps without doing a full Windows reinstall several times. It still takes a lot time, but can be done. In a perfect world, everything would be plug and play, but it doesn't work that way. Once you finally get the system to boot, go to device manager and remove all devices that have any conflicts. Sometimes you have to do this several times and do a lot of searching for the drivers. You also have to install the new motherboard's .inf files. It might not really save you any time in the long run, to be honest.

[Pinky]

I'd try the device manager trick (removing all devices, then shutting down and swapping boards). I've seen miracles with Windows, yours would not be far from it :).

I think some device information was/is kept in the win.ini file, be sure to edit that manually if you can before shutting down and swapping, this might also save time...

[outhouse]

Either way your in for some work, just do it rite [format\reinstall]and have a trouble free set up why take chances nothing bothers me more then a PC with quirks. Very few people get away with this procces with a trouble free setup.

my 2 cents

[Yodums]

Well I would recommend a reformat/reinstall of windows..

But in Windows 98 .. you would go into safe mode and remove PCI Bus and the next time you boot up windows it'll re-detect everything..

[CrystalMethod]

Reformating and reinstalling is usually the best thing to do. But you can try just removing your PCI bus in your device manager. No real need to remove everything in there. Once the PCI bus is gone the OS should redetect everything. that you currently have installed, but not load the old drivers for your old MB.

[Mike360000]

"Reformating and reinstalling is usually the best thing to do. But you can try just removing your PCI bus in your device manager. No real need to remove everything in there. Once the PCI bus is gone the OS should redetect everything. that you currently have installed, but not load the old drivers for your old MB."

Well that's what I was thinking originally. I just wasn't sure if that would coverything that needs to be. I mean even if I remove the PCI BUS, in my case acpi, I wasn't sure about the files left in the Windows/System and Sytem32, or any other ini or driver files. So I guess it won't matter leaving those files in the hard drive?

Cheers,
Mike Lamb

[stompah]

Wouldnt the p4's different instructions require a reformat? I bet you could go in the device manager and get away with removing drivers... but I would doubt you would get 100% out of your processor... likewise with the XP. Dont they both have SSE instructions?

[Bmxpunk86pl]

i have swapped mobos with out reformating before and there was no problem but i dont guarantee that the same will happen to you so just try it and see what happens. If it doest work out then reformat.

p.s. dont forget to backup ur data

[Mike360000]

"i have swapped mobos with out reformating before and there was no problem but i dont guarantee that the same will happen to you so just try it and see what happens. If it doest work out then reformat. "
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I figure as long as it would take me to re-install windows, it would esy be worth taking the chance trying it without re-installing.
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"p.s. dont forget to backup ur data"
Yep, I second mirrored hd waiting!

Thanks,
Mike Lamb

[dude]

Ok it can be done. I have done it before. And my dad does it all the time. He has been using the same windows install on three computers. He just does a disk copy and copies his whole hard drive to a new one. You will want to get a registry editing program and clean that up after this whole project.

[Bmxpunk86pl]

hey man no problem, thats what where all here for

[CrystalMethod]

My friend has swapped his MB 3 times with the same install of WinME, no probs. The last swap was to a P4. I have however run into some boards that will not swap nicely. But best thing to do is back up all the stuff you really want to keep, and try. Worse case senario, is that you re-format and re-install.

[ol' man]

I don;t know I run win2k on one hd between a few machines and have no problems. If you have winXP you are screwed and discussing this further is bunk if you have that. If you have win98 uninstall the drivers for whatever the MOBO has that would conflict with the new mobo and reinstall the sys files from a windows boot disk. What is the problem?

All you need to do is boot from the win98 bootdisk and when your a:/ comes up type

sys c:

in affect it will look like this

a:/>sys c:

Well at least the sys c: is what you will need. It is not that big of a chore and I would back up importent files anyway in normal situautions in case your computer seems unstable but if it does not then you should be okay but it doesn;t hurt to have a back of those importent files on a seperate partition;)

[Yodums]

ITs much better if you format.. It'll clean everything and guaranteed not to leave any old files there..And a good new Windows again.. since the OS gets so slow over time.