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booting OS on new mobo

P

pandiebeer

Junior Member
I wasn't sure if this should be posted on motherboard or Operating Systems but...

I will be doing my first massive computer upgrade hopefully this weekend. I am going from a socket 7 mobo w/ AMD K-6 500 256MB ram to an Intel board supporting hyperthread w/Intel P4 HT 2.8GHz chip. I want to keep and use my 80Gig HDD. On it I have Windows Me. I read on Intel's web site that in order to use Me I have to disable the hyperthread function in the BIOS settings because it doesn't support it. My question though is can I boot up a new motherboard using my existing OS that's on my HDD or do I have to reinstall an OS? I am fearful of losing files in my "My Documents" folder. I ordered XP Pro with my hardware but think that after I run the BIOS and then install XP it will write over anything I had on my hard drive. Is this true? Please help, any info would be appreciated.
 
Let me get this straight -

You are planning on switching motherboards on ME, well good luck!🙂

Seriously though, back up all of your stuff, get XP, and go fro mthere
 
Originally posted by: SpeedFreak03
On second thought, does anything work good with WinME?
Click to expand...

That would be a negative, good sir.

Originally posted by: pandiebeer
I ordered XP Pro with my hardware but think that after I run the BIOS and then install XP it will write over anything I had on my hard drive. Is this true?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. There is the option to just upgrade and keep all your files, but I never do that. I like the feeling of starting out fresh. The best way to go is to have a CD-RW, back up all your data, and then do the fresh install. Besides, you have to back up all your data, anyway. Makes installing a new OS and hardware that much less stressful.
 
I can foresee some problems coming up.

1) Pandiebeer does not have a CD burner, or else would plan on backing up the files s/he wants to save.
2) Pandiebeer has way too many files under "My Documents" so backups are painfully time consuming. (First thing I think of is DLed music and/or porn, but I am cynical that way.)
3) Pandiebeer does not have another harddrive to use. (This one hurts the most.)

But, I will tell you this. If you can find a way to transfer your data off that HD, definetly go with the clean install of XP. If not, you will never be happy. ME won't mesh well with your new motherboard, and XP probably will not be stable being installed over your existing OS.

But to be fair, I have not used XP. It might be a bit more stable in the "high stress" situations than other Windows systems.... But I doubt it.
 
Save up some money and buy another hard drive to save your data, then reinstall your OS. I know it's a drag but you'll appreciate it in the future. Upgrading the OS usually leaves it unstable, then it will eventually crash and you'll need someway to retrieve your data anyway.
 
Originally posted by: DOSfan
I can foresee some problems coming up.
Click to expand...

4) Pandiebeer's hard drive has only one partition. (tsk, tsk)

If I were you, Pandiebeer, I would find a good partitioning program (one that won't lose your data) and defragment first. Once you have at least 2 partitions then you can move all of your important files to the 2nd partition before installing XP. This way you can reformat the 1st partition to NTFS as well, which is better than Fat32 and is what XP prefers.
 
Originally posted by: DOSfan
I can foresee some problems coming up.

1) Pandiebeer does not have a CD burner, or else would plan on backing up the files s/he wants to save.
2) Pandiebeer has way too many files under "My Documents" so backups are painfully time consuming. (First thing I think of is DLed music and/or porn, but I am cynical that way.)
3) Pandiebeer does not have another harddrive to use. (This one hurts the most.)

But, I will tell you this. If you can find a way to transfer your data off that HD, definetly go with the clean install of XP. If not, you will never be happy. ME won't mesh well with your new motherboard, and XP probably will not be stable being installed over your existing OS.

But to be fair, I have not used XP. It might be a bit more stable in the "high stress" situations than other Windows systems.... But I doubt it.
Click to expand...

no its if fact very stable even in"high stress" situations. 🙂
 
1) Pandiebeer does not have a CD burner, or else would plan on backing up the files s/he wants to save.
2) Pandiebeer has way too many files under "My Documents" so backups are painfully time consuming. (First thing I think of is DLed music and/or porn, but I am cynical that way.)
3) Pandiebeer does not have another harddrive to use. (This one hurts the most.)

ok, the thing is 1) I do have a burner but my motherboard crashed and I have nothing right now to turn on all that stuff like my burner. Which is why I was wondering if I could get a motherboard with hyperthread to come up so I could then move everything where I need it to go in order to install XP.

2) I definately have a lot of files but they are music and pictures and it wouldn't be the end of the world if they were gone, just a little frustrating

3) I do have another hard drive, a 4gig with Windows 98 on it I think. So I could clean install XP pro on it and then using my other 80 gig HD as a slave, move my files over and then swith the 4gig to slave and the 80gig to master and do the reverse and be all set???
 
You could do the shuffle with the 4 Gig drive. That sounds like it might be the easiest for you. And you can spread it out over a few days if need be.

You do have another option along this line if you do not want to reinstall XP on the 80 Gig again.... You could install XP on the 4, transfer the files to the 4, erase the 80, then transfer the files back as you like.

There are, and will be, many different views on this idea, But I say if you go this route, run XP on the 4 Gig drive for a while. See how it responds. If it is not painfuly slow to you, leave it on the 4 Gig. This way when Win2003 comes out - if you want to upgrade that is, you have all of your documents on the 80, and you can erase the 4 and install on it.

Just a sugestion. Your milage may vary.
 
Thank you so much for the info, it makes so much sense to me now. I do want to install XP on my 80gig though because I HATE Win Me and I bought it (XP) with my hardware. The hard drive / file transfer switching is what I will end up doing then. I'm glad that it sounds easy and that I can pretty much understand it. Since I'm getting all of the hyperthreading technology I want to take full advantage of it using XP. For me, going from what I had before to what I'm getting now should keep me satisfied for a long, long time (I hope). Again, thank you, that was exactly the information I needed! 😀
 
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