Need link, quick!! to switching motherboards without reformatting

Lenine

Senior member
Apr 19, 2003
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Hey, does anyone have this link? Received my new processor and want to turn it on but I'm too lazy to reformat.
 

Lenine

Senior member
Apr 19, 2003
371
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I remember finding a link on this boards where it said all the stuff you need to do before switching motherboards.


You had to edit the registry and some other stuff... I know someone has it ! :)
 

XBoxLPU

Diamond Member
Aug 21, 2001
4,249
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You can do it without reformatting and installing Windows. After you've swapped the boards, on the first bootup, boot to the WinXP CDROM. Go through the install process until it reaches the point that it locates your existing Windows installation, and tell it to repair the installation. It will essentially reinstall Windows, putting back all the default drivers and stuff, but leave all your non-MS application settings alone, and of course not remove any of your data files. When you boot into it again for the first time, it'll go through the usual hardware detection, and all the Windows settings will be back to the default.

You most likely have a normal NTFS or FAT32 partition set up. There's no way in Windows itself to change the size of partitions like that. You can get software like Partition Magic that will allow you to merge two partitions, or make one of them smaller and then the other one larger to use the newly free space. There are also other products that have the ability. PartitionMagic is somewhat expensive. Search google for "resize partition".

from here
 

TheGreenGoblin

Senior member
Jan 3, 2001
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In the FAQ section , in the OS section , you'll find an article titled " How to help windows survive a motherboard upgrade" which I think is just what you're looking for.
 

KDOG

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,525
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What I do is boot into safe mode, uninstall the previous mobo drivers and restart the computer. Then I shut down, swap mobos and boot into safe mode again, verify that the previous mobo drivers have in fact been removed, and then install new mobo drivers... Peice of cake, sometimes. Of course there are times when Windows has a friggin siezure because of the swap, but then I just make sure all my stuff is backed up, and do clean install of everything.
 

Lenine

Senior member
Apr 19, 2003
371
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Thanks for the replies.


I forgot to mention my PC has no floppy / CDrom drive... I'll try KDOG's mthod, thanks.
 

KDOG

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,525
14
81
Wait!! You don't have a CDROM drive? How you going to load the new drivers? I guess you could download them onto your HDD... Just make sure you can get the drivers on there!!!