Replace 440BX board without reinstalling Windows?

[Khoji]

I have the older Asus P2B BX440 board version with 4 PCI slots and 3 ISAs. Now I urgently need another PCI slot and I was wondering whether it would be possible to replace the board with another BX440 model -- such as the Abit BE6-II V2.0 -- without having to completely reinstall Windows.

If I just had one Windows installation I wouldn't worry about it, but my work involves testing beta software for my clients and this machine runs six different Windows installations on removable hard drives.

If at all possible, I'd like to carry out this change without having to do a complete reinstall of all six systems. Am I hoping too much? For example, will NT4 gag on the extra features on the Abit, such as the extra two IDE controllers and the RAID system, when it encounters them unexpectedly?

TIA,
Khoji

 

[Bozo]

Interesting question Before removing the old motherboard, go into Device Manager and remove all the hardware including the IDE controller and floppy. Then shut down. Then install the new motherboard and let Windows detect the new hardware. When done, go into Safe Mode and check Device Manager for double entries.

NT will probably run fine. It usually doesn't know the hardware is there untill you tell it. I've cloned NT on a Dell, with a SCSI hard drive, and then installed it on a Gateway, with an IDE hard drive, and it ran fine. Just had to load video drivers.

Bozo

 

[AKA]

Sometimes it works good. Sometimes it fubar's it.

I wouldnt trust it after doing that though.

 

[Khoji]

Bozo - Thanks for the information, I think it's probably worth the risk. I've ordered the Gigabyte 2000+ BX instead of the Abit because it has 6 PCIs and stability is the main issue for this system.

Before making the change I'm going to pull images for all OSs with Drive Image so if the worst comes to the worst I can always return to my original setup and use the new motherboard to build an additional machine...

 

[HD2GO]

It's a lot easier to upgrade without reinstalling windows/software if you use a SCSI system. Just move the SCSI adapter and the SCSI HD's to your new system. I have done that a couple of times upgrading from older mobo to newer ones. No problem at all. Good luck.