Change of motherboard - Must I do fresh install of OS, or do this!

[Davbaron]

I may well be changing my motherboard soon, and I use Windows 98SE, at present and wish to continue to do so.
My present mobo is a MSI and the intended one is a Gigabyte.
Most of the advice about doing this says that it is best to re format the hard drive and do a fresh clean install of the OS.
In a lot of respects this will be a pain as I do not want to lose most of what is already on my gaming hard drive. ( I know I can back up )
In a magazine recently I saw the following
â??Upgraded motherboard? Instead of re installing windows from scratch, try deleting the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum key in Registry Editor before shutting down and installing your new board.â??
This is something I would prefer to do rather than a fresh install unless there are compelling reasons why a fresh install is the essential step.
If I took this step and there were problems would a subsequent fresh install of Windows be OK, or must the fresh install be the one and only way to go.
There must be those for and against â?? may I have your opinions with reasons please to help me decide.
Thanks .

 

[mgpaulus]

What I tend to do is to boot into Safe Mode, and delete all objects in the Device Manager. Then I change the MoBo, and reboot. Usually the first problem will be the video detection. This should tell the system to re-detect all hardware. A couple of reboots later, and usually all is good to go. Occassionally this messes up, and I have to go back into Safe Mode, delete all objects, and then re-detect all hardware.....

Just my $0.02 worth, based upon my personal experiences.....

 

[Pauli]

Most of the responses you will get on this message board will go something like this: "...just reinstall the OS, I do it every few months whether I change the motherboard or not...". I don't know where these people get the time to do this because I, like you, have much better things to do than reinstall everything on my system. For me, it takes weeks of tweaking to get everything the way I like it. And even then, I usually discover that I forgot to install an infrequently used utility after a few months.

Ok, rant aside, I have successfully performed MB upgrades without reinstalling the OS on the following:

Win98 - Abit BH6 (440BX) --> i815E; i815E --> i845
Win2K - i815E --> i845

I have never tried going from an Intel chipset to a non-intel one or vice-versa. You don't mention which chipsets are involved in your upgrade, but this is the most important factor in determining whether you will have a smooth transition or not.

Just follow the FAQ and make sure you have backed up everything you can't afford to lose.

 

[Budman]

<a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.html?i=113">Helping Windows Survive a Motherboard Upgrade
- FAQ</a>

 

[Shagga]

Your giving the PC a new heart. Service it with a new installation. You owe it that at least!. 🙂 That's what I tend to do that is.

 

[Buz2b]

The Enum deletion can work, as does the boot to Safe Mode and removing devices before changing MB's. I have done both with Win98 and had sucess most of the time. No guarantees though. Go ahead and try; what have you to lose? But I also follow the train of thought that a fresh reload is the best way to go. You will be amazed at how much snappier your system will be. I usually ran a good install of 98 for almost a year before reloading. Each time I was suprised at the increase in speed getting all the extra "junk" out of my system accomplished.

 

[littlezipp]

Another vote for a fresh install. You really will notice your system get significantly faster!

 

[Zukatah]

To save time for reinstalling windows and tweaking it each time, you should really try Notrton Ghost. For the ease of use I think it's number1. There is a shockwave animation telling you what to do, step by step.

 

[mikeg]

Just do a fresh install of the OS you won't regret it. If you try to do any of the shortcut methods then you end up with problems like instability, Wierd OS error messages and a slower running system. If you just take notes on the software that you use and need to intall before you reformat its not that hard. It just takes time but that time that you save trouble shotting other problems it ends up being the same. Thats just my 2 cents on the subject
Mike G

 

[Pilsnerpete]

since your going for the fresh install, you might as well install it with 98lite. gives you more options than the Microsoft way. try disintegrating IE5. 98lite plus, it's free.

I know, it's a lot of crazy advice--reinstall windows, switch to Netscape-- but it installs so much quicker. I was having trouble with my modem, so I reinstalled (makes sense to me). did it in like 15 minutes.
best o luck, whatever you do.

reinstalling should be treasured, not feared.

 

[AlanPesetsky]

(This is part of a item I posted on the Compuserve PC Hardware Forum some time ago titled "Profiles.txt" if you wish to see some additional notes.)


Keeping Your Win98 Settings When Transplanting Motherboard
or Hard Drives Using "Hardware Profiles".

Synopsis:

Try the following when installing a new motherboard or
moving your Hard Drive to another computer and you want to
maintain as much as possible of your Win98 installations,
registry settings, and hardware settings.

Backup your Hard Drive!

Go to the Start Menu / Settings / System / Hardware
Profiles Tab / Copy. Make a copy of your "Original
Configuration" (I suggest naming it something with a first
letter after "O")

To see the result of this, do a quick test restart. Now
when you reboot, Windows (with a cryptic message) will
present a menu of Hardware Profiles, asking you to chose.
One of the selections is "None of the above". For this
test chose "Original Configuration.

Now shut down. Change your Motherboard or move your your
Hard Drive to its new home.

When you start up with your new motherboard or computer
and you get the Profile Menu choose "None of the above."
Windows will now start a re-installation of the hardware
drivers and whatever -- a redoing of the "Original
Configuration." You will get a bunch of "unknown device"
messages and various install messages.

You should have on hand your Win98 disks and whatever
disks are required to install monitors, video cards,
modems as they may be asked for or you may get the basic
defaults.

And that's it.

(Delete all but "Original Configuration" in the Hardware
Profiles unless you like seeing that menu when you boot!)