Need help with partial rebuild with hard drive/OS question?

[TheOtherBubka]

Hi all. Sorry for the noobish question but I have an HP A1210n (Athlon 3500+) with an ASUS "Amberline" A8AE-LE S939 motherboard that has an ATI Radeon Express 200 IGP (RS482) and the absolutely horrible ATI SB400. Due to some hardware issues, I would like to replace the old ASUS A8AE-LE ATI motherboard with an ASUS M3A78 ATI/AMD 780G/SB 700 with a corresponding AM2+ CPU & DDR2 RAM replacement. The question becomes, will I have to reinstall the OS with the new MB/CPU/RAM even though the new 780G/SB700 are using the same Catalyst drivers as the old RS482/SB400? Or will I be lucky enough that all I have to do is install the install the replacement motherboard bundle into the case and reattach the hard drive, DVD, power/fan connectors?

I am hoping I don't have to wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall all apps, data, etc. If I have to, I might as well make an entire new system.

I have the system restore discs from HP since they wouldn't burn at all from the HP 'supplied' software on the system recovery partition.

 

[Billb2]

I'd try it If it doesn't work, just do a repair install of the OS.
But backups would be a good idea, just to be safe.

 

[TheOtherBubka]

Thank you Bill for the quick answer. Sorry for the post in both topics but wasn't sure which one was the most appropriate location to post. From what you wrote, it seems might be a good chance that I shouldn't have to reinstall the data and apps.

I was hoping someone might know totally if this route would work. I guess it is a $100-150 gamble as the other route is to use the money toward a prebuilt still with XP as I have run out of time to debug problems. Then again, the way tech support is, debugging is done by us most of the time anyway.

I will make sure my back-up of all important data is most up to date before attempting.

 

[Denithor]

Actually, careful there, a lot of the OEM software doesn't include the "repair install" feature - all they have is the "complete wipe & reinstall" option.

Back up your stuff first in case anything goes wrong.

Then try this: guide.

 

[TheOtherBubka]

Thanks Denithor. I was starting to think about worst case scenarios and whether the drive should be readable by the new board. I am still sorting out some things in the guide, but
from what the author wrote at the bottom, it has me feeling better about attempting this process and seeing what happens. I am *almost* thinking about just buying a new hard drive too and just rebuilding and reinstalling from scratch.

 

[TheOtherBubka]

One more thought. I do have both an Averatec notebook with WinXP Home OS CDs alongside a Dell latitude with WinXP Pro OS CDs. The OS on the desktop computer I am looking to *fix* has XP Media Center. Would using either of the OS CDs from the other 2 allow me to repair the OS on the desktop following Bilb2's method?

 

[Jiggz]

The XP Pro for sure will allow a repair installation. However, if you did a good back up of important data you should just take the swap and install method. Swap means you swap the mobo and then install the drivers. Since XP is already installed on the old hdd, as soon as it starts booting it will search for drivers for the new mobo. One trick I used before is to install the drivers of the new mobo into the old system before swapping mobo. So far, it always work without a hitch.