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Replacing Motherboards & The Registry

olds

olds

Elite Member
I had a mobo die and I am going to replace it with a mobo with a different chipset. AMD 761 to VIA KT333. Since the mobo died I can't get into the registry to delete the old settings. How can I make this transformation without a hdd format?
For reference I am going from a Gigabyte GA7DXR to a Soyo-KT333 DRAGON Ultra (Platinum Edition).
 
Good luck, tried this today on windows xp and all it would do was constant reboots. I was going to format anyways but I thought I'd give it a try.
 
Did you try booting into safe mode and making the changes? Or is the registry even available in safe mode?
 
Read the FAQ here at AnandTech. I just did two XP Pro mobo swaps using the advice in the FAQ. Worked fantastatic.

I have to get off to work.

A real quick cut and paste before I leave......

- Reportedly, Windows 2000 and XP can be tricked into doing this stuff for you. The procedure is this: Shut down, install your new hardware, power on, and enter your system BIOS. Make sure your First Boot Device is set to CDROM. Insert the Windows 2000/XP setup CD and boot from this disk. (You may have to "press a key to boot from CD" as the prompt says.) Skip the initial prompt asking to repair your existing installation. Then proceed to the screen where you select a partition, and choose your existing Windows partition. Setup will detect your existing installation and ask you to repair. Say yes. When Windows Setup is complete, you should have a fully working installation with all your old user and application profiles. Everything should be intact, except your hardware and driver settings, leaving it fresh for your new motherboard.

Here's a link to the full article.

Home from work now. As I said, this worked just great. I built a new system for myself. Went from a BX chipset to an 845PE. I had PCI cards for sound, NIC, modem, Promise Fastrak 133 TX2 and a TNT2 video card. The only PCI card I have now is a different modem. Using onboard sound and NIC. Also a TI4200. So this was a major change.

The only issues I had were after the fact changes like removing the old modem in Control Panel > Modems. Setting up my fax software for the new modem.

Recycled my old system for the wife and did the same procedure swapping hers over too. Worked great.

I was going to start a thread talking about how well this went, but I guess right here is good enough.

Is it as "clean" as a fresh install? No, of course not. But unless I run into any issues, I'm staying with it. It's been over a week so far and all is fine.

I should say that I ghosted my drive to an extra drive I had and used that for the change. Figured if I hosed it, I would still have my old machine fully functional. As it was, I didn't have any problems at all.

Good Luck!
 
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