How to: Upgrade your motherboard without reinstalling Windows.

[LTOwnalot]

Thanks dclive!

 

[eplebnista]

Originally posted by: LTOwnalot
Thanks dclive!

:thumbsup:

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: Phil

Originally posted by: bob4432
this should be stickied

Seconded.

along with a "What is the best Linux" sticky and a "Will disabling Windows page file get me girls" sticky.

 

[mechwarrior1989]

Originally posted by: dclive
Go into DM, pick your IDE controller (the top one, over the pri/sec choices), select Update, and pick the standard IDE choice when presented in the lists. (Select all the bottom 'non-automatic' options to get there.)

Ghost or make other image-based backups first.

I feel stupid bringing back a dead topic but I was hoping someone could help me out. I'm using a SATA hard drive as my boot drive (150gb raptor) and I want to change my motherboard so everything else (processor, ram, Hard drives) will all remain the same. Would I still be able to use this method or will I have to change something else or use a different method all together? Thanks in advance.

 

[dclive]

From what chipset to what chipset? Is your PCI HDD controller driver the same? Is the HAL the same? If so, you're fine.

 

[mechwarrior1989]

Originally posted by: dclive
From what chipset to what chipset? Is your PCI HDD controller driver the same? Is the HAL the same? If so, you're fine.

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm not using a PCI HDD controller but the integrated SATA on my current motherboard. I'd be moving from a Sis chipset to a Nvidia chipset. Mostly I'm just getting the motherboard for extra features and overclocking.

 

[dclive]

You can try moving it without doing anything; if the HAL matches and if the disk controllers are compatible, you'll boot up fine.

If you can pre-install the nVidia chipset SATA drivers, that would help.

 

[mechwarrior1989]

Originally posted by: dclive
You can try moving it without doing anything; if the HAL matches and if the disk controllers are compatible, you'll boot up fine.

If you can pre-install the nVidia chipset SATA drivers, that would help.

Just to be sure, how would I know if the disk controllers are compatible? Are they even compatible with two different chipsets? Also, I probably should have mentioned it, but my current system is OEM (I raided the original 160gb HDD with my raptor, got a copy, unraided and am using the raptor now) will that affect my move in any way shape or form?

Also, installing the Nvidia SATA drivers would mean just going to the motherboard site and downloading the latest SATA drivers, running them, and then removing the old motherboard correct? I just want to make sure I'm doing this all properly before I try it (hopefully tmrrw because that's when my mobo should come in) and I don't want to have to be pulling out CPU's and swapping them back and forth between computers (major PITA on my part)

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: mechwarrior1989
I feel stupid bringing back a dead topic but I was hoping someone could help me out....

Do not feel stupid. We THANK you for using search instead of starting a new thread.

 

[Smilin]

You'll probably be just fine.

Before you begin:
-MAKE BACKUPS - especially of important data. If you are backing up to a 2nd drive or something physically remove it from the machine when you are done.
-Preload the SATA drivers.
-make yourself a driver floppy for the SATA drivers.

Remove the following software before you begin:
-Antivirus
-3rd party backup software
-CD/DVD burning software
-Hardware monitoring drivers/services/applications.

Removing these should whack most filter drivers. A filter driver failing is a major PITA because you can't shut it down with the disable dommand in recovery console.

If something does go wrong, don't go swapping hardware around, just *relax* and kick off a repair...

boot to your xp CD
hit f6 when it goes by at the bottom (be sure to catch this! ..it won't give an indication you did though)
provide floppy with SATA drivers a bit later ('s' to specify will be the prompt)
At 'welcome to setup' blue screen, just hit 'enter' to setup.
Setup will detect your busted install, hit 'r' to repair it.

 

[Torghn]

This is an awsome thread. I keep loosing track of it so I'm tagging it for latter.

 

[bluemax]

Why on earth is this not stickied??????

 

[BD2003]

I managed to pull off a cpu/mobo swap (P925 -> Dual Core P965) in Vista using the IDE controller trick, and it worked without a hitch.

 

[dclive]

The IDE controller bit is much easier.

 

[bluemax]

Originally posted by: dclive
Answer: Sysprep doesn't do much. It strips out unique information about the machine, and does a few other things that most people here don't need to care about, particularly if moving from one PC to another with the same licensed copy of Windows.

I suggest not using Sysprep and simply using the "Standard PCI IDE Controller" trick, and you'll be fine.

Sysprep is awesome for automated deployment - you can put twenty different drivers into the image, and no matter what hardware you deploy the image to, the drivers will PnP and be recognized - you can deploy dozens of different machines from one image easily and quickly. But in one-off situations like this where you're simply moving hard drives from one PC to another, it's not really that useful.

Awww CRAP! :| If only I'd done this instead of Sysprep! :| I might not have the fatal error I'm getting now on both cloned disks - on both systems.

 

[JargonGR]

Well I am just about to move my Windos XP installation from a motherboard with the i975 chipset to a motherboard with the 680i chipset. I am using a RAID 0 array from the onboard controller for my boot drive.

Is this possible? I am also moving to SLI but I could add the 2nd card after I have booted.

What do you think I should do.

Thanks

 

[dclive]

Not possible.

Because you have RAID0, you're tied to the onboard controller on your current MB.

If you took those 2 drives to another PC, they won't be seen as a single RAID0 drive, and so Windows won't be found, so even if you could fix the other issues listed here, you wouldn't be bootable...the data isn't readable.

The only exception is if you can take the 2 drives put them into the new PC, and have them recognized as a RAID0 array, *and* you must make sure the drive is readable (boot with a BartPE CD with the right RAID drivers on it or something...) - if you can do that, you can fix this problem, since the RAID array / disk controller brand would be the same, so you'd simply move the drives themselves.

You're probably out of luck. This is why I tell people not to use integrated RAID controllers - you're stuck with that motherboard, and if it ever dies, you've lost all your data. Buy an aftermarket RAID controller (PCI), if you have some odd need for RAID on a home PC, but don't use integrated RAID.

 

[JargonGR]

Since the RAID 0 is so fragile I keep my data in another drive anyway so even if it goes wrong it only has the program files in there for me. The rest I always keep in other drives.


Regarding the PCI controller I would love to use one but it has to be a PCI -EXPRESS one since I only have 1 usable PCI slot with SLI and that is used by the sound card.

(And I need SLI too since I run a 30" monitor @ 2560x1600).

Well I doubt it that the 680i chipset will recognise the RAID0 array created by my 975's ICH7. Maybe I am better off with a clean install I dont know - I was hoping to avoid all this mess of reinstalling everything.

 

[Iggy09]

Hi everyone, I tried to upgrade from my good old Barton 3000+ (ACPI Uniprocessor PC) to a AM2 x2 3800+ (ACPI Multiprocessor PC, if I'm not mistaken) with the Standard IDE controller trick, but I encountered the dreaded blue screen with the header "inaccessible boot device". I am actually using 2 SATA drives (no IDE) but I could not replace my VIA SATA controller (for my Barton) with the nVidia SATA controller (for my AM2). It says that it could not find the device. How do I preload the SATA drivers for my new motherboard?

Thanks for your time and thanks in advance for your help. This is a great thread.

 

[Iggy09]

Hi... it's a bit urgent, so I wonder if anyone can help? How do I install the SATA drivers for my new mobo w/o overwriting the drivers for my current one?

 

[dclive]

If your MB won't boot with standard PCI IDE drivers (as was suggested already) then you'd need a way to integrate the new drivers into the current installation. If the installer won't let you do so without the physical hardware being present, then you could try buying an add-in PCI card, putting it in your current MB, letting the drivers install, and then moving the entire affair to your new MB.

 

[Arkaign]

Fwiw, I work in a PC repair shop, and have used the mergeide method literally hundreds of times, and have never had it fail for moving an XP install (Home, Pro, MCE, SP1, SP2, whatever) to a new setup.

Some detail here : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082

I have the mergeide.reg file and the other required files in a rar if anyone needs them, PM me.

Cheers

 

[dclive]

That will help - if the drive you're going to will boot with standard pci ide controller files...which is essentially what the poster has already tried.

Given it didn't, I suspect his SATA controller requires special drivers for XP to even see the disk (F6 at XP install time to see the drive, for example), hence he'd be stuck.

 

[Iggy09]

Thanks dclive and Arkaign for the replies. I am using Windows 2000 SP4. How much does that differ from XP? I really regret changing from a VIA chipset to an nVidia one now.

This is going to be a bit OT, but I tried to install a fresh Windows on a 80gb hard drive. But when I do that, I can't access my other hard drive (250gb) cuz it's "corrupted or unreadable". The strange thing is that when I switch back to my old motherboard (that boots up with the 250gb) everything works fine, so I don't think that the 250gb is corrupted. But that doesn't explain why I can see it in the BIOS of the new setup and even in Windows. The 250gb is detected but I can't access it at all.

 

[dclive]

The chipset has nothing to do with the problem. The problem is the different IDE controller.

In Disk Management can you see and import the 250GB disk? (Don't do so, but *can* you see it and does it give you the option to import it?)