*brag* 5 platform switches and windows is still working just fine

[ElFenix]

only newbs reformat.

original computer:
socket 754 athlon 3000+ on nforce 3

then:
pentium e2140 on a via board, iirc

next:
c2q 8200 on g31 board

after that:
c2q 8400 on p43 board

and now:
opteron 165 on nforce4

also switched from ati to nvidia graphics

only the latest switch to the opteron caused any real issue, and that's because of the intel processor driver in xp sp2 and sp3. it causes a 7E BSOD on boot. renaming the file in system32/drivers fixes the issue. other than that windows is working a-ok. next up i'll probably just virtualize it and run it from inside windows 7. (though it may go to an athlon ii if fry's has a good deal on a quad core again. today's tri-core deal is excellent but the tri core simply isn't as good at re-coding video)



edit 6/13 - now rocking a a2-630 on an amd board using the same install of windows.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

That's pretty impressive! so mostly, you didn't even have to do anything when you switched?

 

[Red Squirrel]

What did you do to make this work? I heard it was possible, but somewhat involved.

 

[Nothinman]

Yea, it's mostly hit or miss depending on the drivers you have installed at the time. Some take better to it than others. I remember a long time ago at my last job when the nVidia driver would cause a BSOD if you put in a non-nVidia card without removing it first.

Luckly, I haven't had a personal Windows machine in ~10 years so I haven't had to worry about it. I think my last Linux install lasted 3 desktops and a laptop, although this one's only been on this one machine since I've had this machine for almost 5 years and I did a fresh install when I got it because I wanted a pure 64-bit install.

 

[ElFenix]

What did you do to make this work? I heard it was possible, but somewhat involved.

mostly, just booting and finding drivers on the motherboard's CD. also, using a ps/2 keyboard and mouse adapter as windows hates USB for some reason. only this last one have given me much trouble, iirc. before that only switching from ati to nvidia graphics was a problem, but drivercleaner took care of that.

if i didn't have a bunch of programs that have expired (but have not had significant updates), i might have bothered reinstalling windows. this way saves me more money.

 

[JesseKnows]

I didn't realize there were brag points to be had for NOT cleaninstalling! Now that there is this glorious precedent....

My WinXP started on a P3/450, then dual P3, then P4, now Athlon64 X2. Since I'm broadband bound on web browsing and video-frame-rate bound on video playback, I see no point in cleaning up or in upgrading my hardware further.

 

[ElFenix]

I didn't realize there were brag points to be had for NOT cleaninstalling! Now that there is this glorious precedent....

My WinXP started on a P3/450, then dual P3, then P4, now Athlon64 X2. Since I'm broadband bound on web browsing and video-frame-rate bound on video playback, I see no point in cleaning up or in upgrading my hardware further.

formatting is some sort of unnecessary geek badge of pride, i've found.

 

[SimMike2]

Doing endless "clean installs" every few months is complete overkill, basically throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

 

[Red Squirrel]

mostly, just booting and finding drivers on the motherboard's CD. also, using a ps/2 keyboard and mouse adapter as windows hates USB for some reason. only this last one have given me much trouble, iirc. before that only switching from ati to nvidia graphics was a problem, but drivercleaner took care of that.

if i didn't have a bunch of programs that have expired (but have not had significant updates), i might have bothered reinstalling windows. this way saves me more money.

Oh so you install the mobo drivers and stuff before you install the new hardware? Guess that makes sense.. but don't you get issues with certain drivers that just refuse to install because it can't detect the hardware?

Since if you wait after you'll just get a BSOD and wont be able to boot.

 

[JackMDS]

It is possible to switch as many as you want with Acronis TrueImage Universal Restore.

It restores any image to a new system while stripping the Non compatible Drivers and installing the correct Drivers that are available in the Windows INF storage.

If the driver is Not available in Windows, it install generic driver (like a simple VGA driver) that can be updated with a current Downloaded drivers.

 

[Nothinman]

It is possible to switch as many as you want with Acronis TrueImage Universal Restore.

Sometimes. A friend of mine was just bitching about problems with that and XP, after the restore either the sound wouldn't work or the machine would BSOD.

 

[Zargon]

I swapped motherboards 3 times, one cpu change, and 2 gpu changes

also did a vista > win7 upgrade install

the last mobo swap killed my 7 install, but mostly because the p45 board croaked and hosed the os install when it did

 

[Modelworks]

Not surprising really.
Windows comes with a ton of drivers that it checks for on every startup . You can actually decrease startup times by disabling those drivers. There about 200 of them. Be sure you know what you are disabling though , disable the wrong one and you could get BSOD.

To see them you need to use something like process hacker.
http://processhacker.sourceforge.net/

Click the services tab
Even though I am running windows 7 x64 and do not have this hardware windows still checks for it:

Uli AGP Bus Filter
SiSRaid2
Wacom Serial Pen HID Driver
Serial Mouse Driver
QWAVE driver
Hauppauge Consumer Infrared Receiver
Broadcom NetXtreme II 10 GigE VBD
AMD K8 Processor Driver


And many more

 

[Nothinman]

Not surprising really.
Windows comes with a ton of drivers that it checks for on every startup

Except that it is surprising because even with the default set of drivers included, moving an XP or earlier install had pretty much a 50/50 chance of even booting. And with the way Windows is designed it's a huge PITA to fix it if you end up on the wrong side of those odds.

 

[Modelworks]

Except that it is surprising because even with the default set of drivers included, moving an XP or earlier install had pretty much a 50/50 chance of even booting. And with the way Windows is designed it's a huge PITA to fix it if you end up on the wrong side of those odds.

Boot to safe mode, uninstall the old drivers and reboot. Never had a problem.

 

[Nothinman]

Boot to safe mode, uninstall the old drivers and reboot. Never had a problem.

It's been a long time but from what I remember not even Safe Mode would boot without a BSOD in some cases.

And like I said, a friend of mine was just fighting with similar driver issues and Acronis Universal Restore or whatever it's called. Sound drivers kept BSODing on him after a restore.

 

[JackMDS]

Concerning the issue at hand, most of the BSODs occur during the boot when Windows needs to load the HD's/Chipset interface drivers. Even if the drivers for the new chipset are in the drivers cache it BSOD since it is configured to other chipset's drivers, and the HD can not be read in order to find the correct drivers and install them.

In such case Safe Mode is No Help.

 

[Genx87]

This is impressive considering it is XP. I have seen Vista handle this rather well. But I havent had much luck with the 2000\XP platform.

 

[dman]

Why would you go from C2Q to a S939 Dual Core? Repurposing hardware?

 

[ElFenix]

Why would you go from C2Q to a S939 Dual Core? Repurposing hardware?

yes. decided it made no sense to have my 'gaming' setup use such an old and slow processor when i had a much faster one, so switched the boxes.


anyway, up to a 5th platform change as i'm now rocking a a2-630 in that box. makes video conversion much faster.

Oh so you install the mobo drivers and stuff before you install the new hardware? Guess that makes sense.. but don't you get issues with certain drivers that just refuse to install because it can't detect the hardware?

Since if you wait after you'll just get a BSOD and wont be able to boot.

nope.

 

[BTA]

This was pretty easy to do back in the day with Win98 as well. Trick was to boot into safe mode and remove basically everything out of device manager first. Then shutdown and install your new hardware. Boot up and Windows would redetect everything. Long as you had your new drivers handy it always went smooth, though a little time consuming.

I haven't had to do that with XP or Vista or 7 though.

 

[Emulex]

sysprep

 

[VirtualLarry]

This was pretty easy to do back in the day with Win98 as well. Trick was to boot into safe mode and remove basically everything out of device manager first. Then shutdown and install your new hardware. Boot up and Windows would redetect everything. Long as you had your new drivers handy it always went smooth, though a little time consuming.

I haven't had to do that with XP or Vista or 7 though.

Actually, Win98(se?) had an even better feature. You had to enable Hardware Profiles. Then, when moving to a new platform, just select the right option on the hardware profiles menu, and it would build a new hardware profile for that platform.

 

[Nothinman]

Actually, Win98(se?) had an even better feature. You had to enable Hardware Profiles. Then, when moving to a new platform, just select the right option on the hardware profiles menu, and it would build a new hardware profile for that platform.

Yea, I believe NT 4 and maybe Win2K has a similar feature but it was removed in XP for some reason.