How to install a new motherboard without reinstalling Vista?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I remember back in the day that there was a way to install a new motherboard WITHOUT having to reinstall XP, formatting, etc. I did it myself and it worked like a charm.

Is such a thing out there for Vista?

I think it would be pretty neat if someone could find a way to make a disk image of Vista, but without the drivers. That way you could do a clean install of Vista, install all your essential programs, make an image of this, and set it aside somewhere. So in the future if you've upgraded to a new motherboard and want to format your hard drive you could do so, and then load the driver-less Vista image with all your core programs in one go. Then all you would have to do is reinstall all your drivers and any programs or games that you've added since the initial disk image.

For example, every time I format, I must reinstall:

Photoshop + Actions
Six image editing programs
Office
Firefox + Extensions
Steam
VLC
Dreamweaver
SSH Client
Daemon Tools
uTorrent
Ultramon

These are my core programs that I can't go without. So an image that includes Vista + these programs + the flexibility of being driver-less to accommodate any future hardware changes would be awesome.

 

[Nothinman]

I think it would be pretty neat if someone could find a way to make a disk image of Vista, but without the drivers.

Except it can't work since an OS needs drivers to use the hardware and run. If anything you want more drivers so that when Windows boots up the next time it'll see the hardware and already have the driver available.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I think it would be pretty neat if someone could find a way to make a disk image of Vista, but without the drivers.

Except it can't work since an OS needs drivers to use the hardware and run. If anything you want more drivers so that when Windows boots up the next time it'll see the hardware and already have the driver available.

Obviously I don't mean NO drivers. Basic drivers are fine to get the system up and running.

Currently when you do a disk image you image all your drivers.

Shuttle Mobo
Winfast TV Tuner
7900GT

What happens when I try to load an old image with these drivers when my currently computer:

Has a different motherboard.
Winfast TV Tuner isn't in the system anymore. Replaced by a different TV Tuner.
7900GT is replaced by an ATI card.

The method that I talked about where you could replace your motherboard WITHOUT reinstalling Windows somehow reset Windows to its initial state in terms of drivers.

 

[Nothinman]

Obviously I don't mean NO drivers. Basic drivers are fine to get the system up and running.

But they're not. You might be able to get by with BIOS calls for the disk but it would be mind-numbingly slow and won't work in every case, for example if your SATA controller is in AHCI mode.

Currently when you do a disk image you image all your drivers.

Which isn't a problem.

What happens when I try to load an old image with these drivers when my currently computer:

It fails to boot because it can't find the hard disk because the wrong controller drivers are there, removing drivers will only make that more likely to happen.

The method that I talked about where you could replace your motherboard WITHOUT reinstalling Windows somehow reset Windows to its initial state in terms of drivers.

It's called sysprep or doing a repair install after you've restored the image.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Currently when you do a disk image you image all your drivers.

Which isn't a problem.

What happens when I try to load an old image with these drivers when my currently computer:

It fails to boot because it can't find the hard disk because the wrong controller drivers are there, removing drivers will only make that more likely to happen.

The method that I talked about where you could replace your motherboard WITHOUT reinstalling Windows somehow reset Windows to its initial state in terms of drivers.

It's called sysprep or doing a repair install after you've restored the image.

This is what I'm talking about. A sysprep'd image file, only with all my core programs already pre-loaded on it. So no matter how I change my hardware configuration, whenever I format I can just use a sysprep'd image (that I made a long time ago on a computer with a totally different hardware configuration than the one I have now) to reinstall Vista and all my programs in one go.

Basically I want a way to NOT have to manually reinstall all my core programs every time I format and reinstall Vista.

 

[Nothinman]

So why not just use sysprep before you create the image?

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
So why not just use sysprep before you create the image?

I wasn't aware that sysprep could create an image with preloaded software. In fact, I couldn't even recall the name "sysprep" until half an hour ago, hence the reason for my thread...

 

[Nothinman]

sysprep doesn't create an image, you still have to do that part yourself.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
sysprep doesn't create an image, you still have to do that part yourself.

Care to tell me step by step how I should do sysprep and then create an image? So I have a reference computer with all the software that I want. Check. Now what?

 

[Nothinman]

Step 2: Google 'sysprep'
Step 3: notice that 6 of the first 7 hits are documents on how to use sysprep
Step 4: start reading