If you install new mobo, should you clean install Windows

[Esoterica]

This might be a newbie question. I just switched from a celeron to a amd board. My question is should I do re install windows me to reset the registry to the new mobo or is this not important. I notice on win2k this does not seem to mattter. But in the wme registry is definately refers the the motherboard.
John

 

[GT1999]

It's not completely necessary, but I would highly recommend it.

 

[CraigRT]

A simple Yes from me.

 

[SleepyGuy]

YES! It'll save you a lot of headaches later!

 

[ninjazed]

If you're lazy, like me, try it and see what happens. Just make sure you remove all Intel system devices and software first. You might get lucky, like I did, and be on your way with little or no agg. If all hell breaks loose though, just bite the bullet and reformat and reinstall. Just make sure you download all the latest drivers and software you need from the web BEFORE you undertake the task. Good Luck!

 

[UNCjigga]

Boot to safe mode windows. Delete the entire ENUM key folder in the windows registry. Then install your new mobo. Works everytime for me (unless you wanna do IDE RAID.)

 

[nickdakick]

The above mentioned especially the Enum thing I highly recommend. Being the lazy @ss I am I never did one of those things and being a lucky b@stard too it worked well three times in row.

 

[bulldawg]

I`ve done it without a clean install, but that route seems to be asking for problems later on.

 

[tpetre4322]

also after it gets done installin all the new stuff, boot to safe mode, and remove all doubles, and old hardware no longer installed, then it will find some more stuff, than you should be stable, remember remove both of all doubles except pci for irq steering.

 

[Killrose]

I did'nt. What I did before the new install was: Removed my modem, nic, sound card, and all the associated drivers. The last thing I did before installing the new motherboard was I went into Device Manager and removed the hard disk controllers/floppy controllers and the USB hub. Then shut down the computer. I did all that because I was going from an Intel BX chipset to the new Via KTA133a chipset.
My new motherboard installed without a hitch, and I installed my old hardware one at a time and let windows re-install the hardware/drivers.
Just to make sure all my old Intel device drivers were gone I checked my Registry and booted into safe mode and checked out the items in in the Device Manager to make sure I did'nt show any duplicate or old items.
It may not be the way to do it, but hey it worked for me.

 

[Killrose]

Oh and one other thing, defragment your hard drive once you install everything and it's up and running stable.

 

[MCS]

I too went from a BX board to a KT133A board. I tried the deleting the Enum key trick from the registry. At first, things looked good, it started detecting all the new devices and I was just about to kick back and relax, thinking to myself that I had somehow cheated my way into an easy upgrade...when the problems started. Two hours later I was reinstalling Windows onto a freshly formatted C:, wishing I had just done so in the first place.

I won't bore you with the details but in a nutshell I could have installed Windows twice over instead of sitting there trying to get it to work "the lazy way".

So as Nike(TM) said, Just Do It

 

[chows3]

I recently moved hd/cdrom/cdrw from my old computer (P166) to duron 750/MSI K7T Pro2A. I experienced a whole series of problems, from sudden lockups to missing cdrom/cdrw in win98se. I spent a couple of hours trying to fix the problem, but finally gave up and install win/apps from scratch. How long did it take? 1 hour.

 

[osage]

Fresh install seem to work best for me.

I recommend it to anyone who askes.