Changing to a new mobo - how to not have to format?

[vm]

I'm gonna be switching from an asus p2b/p3-450 to a epox8kta3/tbird 1.0 this week, someone told me there is ways to switch mobos without formatting..he said i should still back up my data up in case it wouldn't work..
anyone here know of ways to change mobos without formatting? through registry modifications or the correct way to install/uninstall the drivers, or anything else?

any info is appreciated

 

[jsbush]

You can just swap the motherboards, but you won't get the performence you should! And it might be unstable. I don't think anyone can tell you how to delete all the resgistry entrys for your old motherboard just cus theres probably thousands of them.

Good luck.

 

[AMD4ME2]

Format is my middle name I love starting over with a clean slate! however I did just swap boards once.. went from a PPro 200 to an AMD K6-2 400 on an Ali chipset. It actually worked out quite well.. and ended up being one of the more stable installations I have had even across 2 completely different architechtures.. of course that is a rare instance where it worked out ok.. most of the time a fresh install is preferable.

 

[jd in IL]

It can be done, it's best to just wipe it and do a new install but heres an easy way in case you don't want to format. Before you change MB's, boot in safe mode and wipe out everything in Device Manager, shut down, swap boards, then boot and let Windoze find everything.

 

[vm]

Thanks for the replies.
I'll try that jd