Help with installing a new VIA Motherboard?

[Warthog]

I need some advice on installing a new MB. I am going from an MSI 815E Pro, P3 700, to a Asus A7V266-E, XP 1800. So from an Intel to a VIA platform. I will be using Windows XP Home edition. With my current MSI MB I currently have the HD partitioned into a C and D drive with the OS installed on C. I have installed motherboards before, but it usually was with a new HD at the same time or going from an Intel to and Intel platform. It has been a few years though, so I need some help. Here are my questions. Feel free to go beyond what I asked if I missed something. Thanks

1. Do I have to do a clean install, I.E. boot to the XP CD and start all over on the C drive?
2. Can I just let my system detect the new set-up and install the drivers then or will it not boot at all?

 

[intelbugger]

OK...you don't need to install the OS again.

Just set up the motherboard, ram and processor, check the first boot. Then keep the original OS CD handy and plug in the HDD and CDD and all and power on...be sure to select standard cmos options (not necessary) and boot order in BIOS.. just do it, man!!

 

[hclarkjr]

well from my experience installing motherboards so far you are better off doing a format c:\q then trying to let windows sort out what you have done. you may luck out and windows will configure itself perfectly to the new hardware or you could end up fighting your system for who knows how long and end doing a format anyhow. so do yourself a favor and format. just my opinion though

 

[Warthog]

Thanks for the advice so far, looks like it is 1-1. Any other thoughts?

 

[Vette73]

I went from a KT266a board to a Dual CPU 760MPX chipset board and all I did was put the harddrive on the computer and boot, Win XP Pro did the rest. It saved all my settings. No formatting for me, and no problems.

 

[Mem]

I went from Intel board to VIA board and tried a straight board swap without clean install,(on Win98) anyway I got it stable but it took awhile,I would suggest a clean install of WinXP is the best way to go.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Mem
I went from Intel board to VIA board and tried a straight board swap without clean install,(on Win98) anyway I got it stable but it took awhile,I would suggest a clean install of WinXP is the best way to go.

Win98 and WinXP are totally differnt. With Win98 YES I would do a clean install, but with XP I say go for it.

 

[Mem]

Win98 and WinXP are totally differnt. With Win98 YES I would do a clean install, but with XP I say go for it.

Agreed!!!! but you can`t beat a clean install for best performance, even with XP ,I`m not saying it won`t work but there`s less chance of problems with a clean install.
One more thing I`ve both XP and 98 PC so know they are different .

 

[Warthog]

Just letting anybody who is interested know how the new install went. Well, I did try to just boot up, but I got the blue screen of death, several times. I ended up booting from CD and trying a repair which looked like it was going well. Then it just rebooted and started a new install. Not a big deal though, it went much faster with my new setup, so I didn't mind.

 

[CraigRT]

I've had great success with switching out hardware and using existing install. I have however seen problems when going from an Intel to AMD rig where the hdd could not be read from, it didn't have the controller drivers and that was the worst problem i have had. i have switched out 2 mb's and cpu's and 3 video cards (and more) on my current win2k install and still running GREAT.