Rant against all the Vista haters...

[SunnyD]

I just transplanted motherboards this morning, upgrading from a NVIDIA chipset to an AMD chipset (Yay for 790GX!). In the process I was thinking "crap, I hope I got everything off there that I needed, I'm going to have to reinstall Windows!"

Fast forward, set up the hardware, boot up the system, check the BIOS settings, then let it reboot and watch Vista boot up with the old install from my previous motherboard. I patiently waited for a Blue Screen... but after a minute or two the startup scroll bar disappeared and the Vista logo came up, then followed up with the login screen. I logged in, everything came up (one driver complained about a configuration change but was quickly dismissed), and my desktop loaded. No bluescreen, no lockups, nothing.

So while Vista may be a memory hog or whatnot, I am pleasantly surprised that it was able to manage this feat. Sure, I still plan on reinstalling Vista anyway, but if it were XP, I seriously doubt I would have gotten this far period.

Disclaimer - I've been running Vista now since it launched, particularly the 64 bit version on my desktop and the 32 bit version on a laptop. I have never had any fatal sort of errors other than NVIDIA drivers crashing the system.

 

[Nothinman]

Sure, I still plan on reinstalling Vista anyway

Why waste your time?

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Sure, I still plan on reinstalling Vista anyway

Why waste your time?

First off, I have to reactivate it anyway, so might as well do a clean install instead of uninstalling the crap I no longer use (old games/apps). Second off, changing the hard drive configuration, so I'll end up reinstalling anyway.

 

[Aberforth]

Originally posted by: SunnyD

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Sure, I still plan on reinstalling Vista anyway

Why waste your time?

First off, I have to reactivate it anyway, so might as well do a clean install instead of uninstalling the crap I no longer use (old games/apps). Second off, changing the hard drive configuration, so I'll end up reinstalling anyway.

I didn't reactivate via telephone when I upgraded my pc- it was awesome. I changed my processor, RAM, HDD and GPU, I think if you use vista for more than a year it won't ask for the phone activation because the number of activation checks will be reduced as your windows gets older.

Also, you don't have to reinstall windows even if you change your whole computer. All you have to do is take a backup of your HDD with Acronis True Image Echo Workstation, then restore it on the new PC using Acronis Universal Restore Disc, it will install appropriate drivers before windows starts up.

 

[Raduque]

Originally posted by: Aberforth

I didn't reactivate via telephone when I upgraded my pc- it was awesome. I changed my processor, RAM, HDD and GPU, I think if you use vista for more than a year it won't ask for the phone activation because the number of activation checks will be reduced as your windows gets older.

I don't know about this - I've had Vista installed since mid June of '07 and in early August I transferred the old boot drive (after cloning it to a new drive) to another computer (using the same 965 chipset) and Vista told me I had to reactivate in 30 days. And it was only a change from a gigabyte to intel mobo and c2d to celeron d.

 

[metroplex]

I did this several times using XP Pro without any problems.

 

[Aberforth]

Originally posted by: Raduque

Originally posted by: Aberforth

I didn't reactivate via telephone when I upgraded my pc- it was awesome. I changed my processor, RAM, HDD and GPU, I think if you use vista for more than a year it won't ask for the phone activation because the number of activation checks will be reduced as your windows gets older.

I don't know about this - I've had Vista installed since mid June of '07 and in early August I transferred the old boot drive (after cloning it to a new drive) to another computer (using the same 965 chipset) and Vista told me I had to reactivate in 30 days. And it was only a change from a gigabyte to intel mobo and c2d to celeron d.

No, I said I didn't re-activate it via telephone, I was able to activate it online without a problem- it didn't give me any "the product key is already in use" message. Maybe you are using OEM version.

 

[Raduque]

Originally posted by: Aberforth

Originally posted by: Raduque

Originally posted by: Aberforth

I didn't reactivate via telephone when I upgraded my pc- it was awesome. I changed my processor, RAM, HDD and GPU, I think if you use vista for more than a year it won't ask for the phone activation because the number of activation checks will be reduced as your windows gets older.

I don't know about this - I've had Vista installed since mid June of '07 and in early August I transferred the old boot drive (after cloning it to a new drive) to another computer (using the same 965 chipset) and Vista told me I had to reactivate in 30 days. And it was only a change from a gigabyte to intel mobo and c2d to celeron d.

No, I said I didn't re-activate it via telephone, I was able to activate it online without a problem- it didn't give me any "the product key is already in use" message. Maybe you are using OEM version.

Oh, i misread. I read "phone activation" as "phone home for activation", meaning it didn't need to reactivate.

In any case, I didn't bother to try and reactivate on the other computer, it's my fileserver running freenas.

 

[Bateluer]

Call me old school, but if I was changing out that much hardware, I would make sure I backed up needed data first and then just reinstall the OS.

 

[bsobel]

I think if you use vista for more than a year it won't ask for the phone activation because the number of activation checks will be reduced as your windows gets older.

120 days last I checked.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: metroplex
I did this several times using XP Pro without any problems.

As long as I remember to change the hard drive controllers to "standard PCI hard disk controller" before the upgrade/swap, I'm fine.

It would be nice if this worked without intervention however, as when a motherboard dies you're pretty much screwed if you want to save the install. Strangely, windows 9x could do this as well...although you'd probably want to reinstall in that case anyway since 9x installs seemed to eat themselves after 6 months or so.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Call me old school, but if I was changing out that much hardware, I would make sure I backed up needed data first and then just reinstall the OS.

Point taken... though I did back everything up prior, and all my "data" is stored on a secondary (non-OS) hard drive anyway. I just figured I'd give it a whirl and check to see if I missed anything.

Oh, and if anyone was wondering - Vista after taking care of "biz" only gave me 3 days to reactivate.

 

[HannibalX]

Originally posted by: metroplex
I did this several times using XP Pro without any problems.

Yeah but does XP come with projector HIDs??? LOL

 

[KB]

Originally posted by: metroplex
I did this several times using XP Pro without any problems.

I too have done this - including putting a hard drive from one machine into another and booting it as the primary drive. The times it failed were if the HAL was different, like going from a uniprocessor motherboard to a dual-processor.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: metroplex
I did this several times using XP Pro without any problems.

So you are the one.

 

[Thor86]

I'm not sure about nVidia to AMD chipset swaps, but even XP was transferable from nVidia to Intel without issues.

You just need to uninstall any peripherial drivers before the swap and re-install the drivers and new chipset drivers. Been doing this since Win98.

 

[manowar821]

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: metroplex
I did this several times using XP Pro without any problems.

So you are the one.

Make that two, smart ass. I've done this half a dozen times.

I also personally know at least 4 people who have done the same. It's not a big deal.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: manowar821

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: metroplex
I did this several times using XP Pro without any problems.

So you are the one.

Make that two, smart ass. I've done this half a dozen times.

I also personally know at least 4 people who have done the same. It's not a big deal.

Were you beat as a child or something? I haven't seen a single response by you in a thread on this forum that didn't include some derogatory response.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: Thor86
I'm not sure about nVidia to AMD chipset swaps, but even XP was transferable from nVidia to Intel without issues.

You just need to uninstall any peripherial drivers before the swap and re-install the drivers and new chipset drivers. Been doing this since Win98.

I'm not even sure you have to do that much. My experience is if you can get it to use the right driver for the boot driver...or at least a compatible one, it will boot up. And once it boots up, you're ok. It'll flip out sometimes going on a driver install rampage but if it gets to the desktop you've got something to work with.

Whether you want to keep these crudded up installs is a seperate question entirely...

 

[manowar821]

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: manowar821

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: metroplex
I did this several times using XP Pro without any problems.

So you are the one.

Make that two, smart ass. I've done this half a dozen times.

I also personally know at least 4 people who have done the same. It's not a big deal.

Were you beat as a child or something? I haven't seen a single response by you in a thread on this forum that didn't include some derogatory response.

Nah, I just decided a while ago that I'm not going to be faking respect for people who bullshit, anymore.

 

[bullbert]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
snip... (Yay for 790GX!) ...snip

How is that beast doing? Any driver hiccups? I ask because that appears to be my next upgrade path, as well. It that your primary gaming rig, or is it used for frivolous activities, like work?

Hopefully AMD got both bridges right this time. The Intel fanboys will have to bite their tongues until Intel catches up in a few years.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: manowar821

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: manowar821

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: metroplex
I did this several times using XP Pro without any problems.

So you are the one.

Make that two, smart ass. I've done this half a dozen times.

I also personally know at least 4 people who have done the same. It's not a big deal.

Were you beat as a child or something? I haven't seen a single response by you in a thread on this forum that didn't include some derogatory response.

Nah, I just decided a while ago that I'm not going to be faking respect for people who bullshit, anymore.

There is a difference between not showing respect and being a foul mouthed ass.

 

[Markbnj]

Put me down in the "did this in XP" column, not to detract from OP's good results. I usually uninstall any board-specific drivers, shut down, swap hardware, and restart.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Markbnj
Put me down in the "did this in XP" column, not to detract from OP's good results. I usually uninstall any board-specific drivers, shut down, swap hardware, and restart.

I've done it too.

 

[OverVolt]

"Did this in XP"

Me too.