Replace MOBO without wiping drive?

[LotharJade]

Hi, I just RMA'd my board because it fritzed. I am not getting the same type of mother board back. I had previously had everything installed how I like it and stuff. Do I have to wipe the hard drive to get the computer to work when put back together, or can I just plug in HD and update or reinstall as necessary?

I had a MSI 655 Max and am getting back a MSI 865PE Neo2 -FIS2R.:Q

 

[LeaDxPainT]

I swapped P-2 mobos with wink2k installed on the hdd and it worked just fine afterwards.

 

[pspada]

What OS? You might be lucky like ^, but in many cases the system won't boot the OS properly.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Try it and find out. Typically when I swap mobos (backing up to another partition before swapping), I try to boot with the new drive in and install it without reformatting. If it works, great, but I reformat about a month later just to keep everything clean. Remember that that is just a temporary solution - a fresh, clean reformat (or Norton Ghosting) and reinstall is the best way to keep problems .. ehrm.. at bay (sorry for the rhyme).

 

[LotharJade]

Yeah, I have WIN2k on my machine.

 

[LotharJade]

If I could just get by for awhile. In a couple months I will look into getting a new SATA HD and will move the current to backup. Plus in a couple of months, I spect we will see a few more SATA's around with lower prices (lets hope).

 

[Nuggs]

I've changed mobo's for years without having to reinstall the os, 95, 98 & XP all swapped mobo's fine, just installed the correct driver when I re booted.

 

[Psychosylph]

What OS are you using? Also, what type of chipset do the two motherboards have?

Excellent link

 

[Spike]

if they are the same board sometimes it works for me but if the chipsets are different it has never worked right. (at least for me.) Most of the time the OS will work fine but something does not work right (on board sound, LAN, USB ports, etc...) I have ALWAYS had to reload to get everything to work right. Now, this could just have been my misfortune, it sounds like some have had no problems upgrading without a fresh OS install, but for me I have always had to do it.

-spike

P.S. The best idea is to just try it and see. If something screws up, just reload. Remeber to backup as always before the reinstall, especially your IE favorites, this was the one thing I fogot recently... AAAA!!

 

[Psychosylph]

Yo, Spike! Check out the link I posted!

Most of the time, if it is the same chipset you can get away with it; if not, follow the link...

 

[Spike]

thanks for that link though it is too late for me as I just reinstalled XP (like 2 days ago) after getting the NF7-S. Next time I will check this link out and try it that way. As usual I love to restate extactly what others say in threads... it's my gift

-spike

 

[LotharJade]

I am going from a SiS 655 chipset to an Intel 865PE. Hey, what is the difference between a PE and a P?

 

[ForsakenMaster]

some times it works some times it doesnt