Socket 939 to i7: Same Hard Drive?

Eluros

Member
Jul 7, 2008
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Greetings, all,

So, I've been running a Socket 939 setup for about 3 years, and the motherboard was recently fried due to a crappy PSU. It's definitely gone; no hope of it returning.

If I purchase a new setup-- something way faster, such as an i7/x58/DDR3-- I've read on several sites that I should be able to plug in my current hard drive and not need to reformat the OS or anything like that. Does that sound accurate? I'm at college, and left my OS disc at home, so reformatting would mean that I'd need to wait until summer, which I really don't want to do.

Thanks, all!
 

Sacraster

Senior member
May 31, 2001
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whenever you install a new motherboard, it is best to format your harddrive and reinstall os on it to avoid any headache later on. But if you don't want reformat, you can uninstall the chipset software/driver first and any other software/driver from your 939 motherboard in the safe mode and then start the window in normal mode and install software/driver for your new motherboard. be warn tho, there might be bsod
 

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
5,611
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Acronis True Image Workstation Echo + Universal Recovery. It backups your HD, then when you restore it using Universal recovery, it strips all the drivers that Windows installed, so its a basically new install, but you already have all your old programs installed. Afterwards, just install your drivers,etc.
 

Eluros

Member
Jul 7, 2008
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Acronis True Image Workstation Echo + Universal Recovery. It backups your HD, then when you restore it using Universal recovery, it strips all the drivers that Windows installed, so its a basically new install, but you already have all your old programs installed. Afterwards, just install your drivers,etc.

Interesting... I'm looking into this... seems to be getting pretty mixed (though mostly negative) reviews. Is Universal Recovery a free add-on, or does one pay for that? As well, is the "Home" version sufficient:

$39.00, free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16832200008

Or would I need Workstation Echo?

$83
http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATICW/

Thanks!
 

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
5,611
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Home version doesn't work with Universal Recovery, and Universal recovery is a 15$ addon to Workstation Echo, I believe. I used it a while back, I dunno about the reviews, but it worked fine from me switching from a S939 to LGA775 chipset without ever reformatting.

Edit, Universal restore jumped in price o.o, its 36.99 now.

and oops, its called universal restore, not recovery :)

Personally, I didn't think it was that bad, since i use Acronis everyday (with incremental backup) that i schedule. Overall for what it can do, its a very capable software.
 

Eluros

Member
Jul 7, 2008
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Interesting... while I'm open to the software (the price is pretty high, but I'm willing to pay it if the effect will be worthwhile), I want to make sure that it would correctly resolve my dilemma.

When I run the software, it will already be on the new system, as my old motherboard is fried. Thus, the only purpose would be to strip all the drivers off the old setup... not actually to transfer the OS or anything. Is there not a way to do that without spending over $100, as the Acronis solution would seem to entail?

Thanks a bunch!
 

Eluros

Member
Jul 7, 2008
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Why pay when you can do it for free
Straight from M$

Thanks... however, to repair an existing failed motherboard requires the insertion of the OS CD, which I mentioned that I don't have and won't have until summer... thus, it's really not an option.

This is a sticky over in the motherboards section.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2275658&enterthread=y

I did this when I went from 939 to 775, and everything worked fine.

Same as above... most of those options require having the original OS CD, which I won't have available for awhile. I suppose I could probably use the CD from a friend but my own activation key... nothing unethical about that, but I'd need to find someone with a CD.
 

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
5,611
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If you're only gonna be doing it once, buying Acronis isn't really worth it. I bought it since I do backups everyday, and thought it was a nice feature to have.
 

In2Photos

Platinum Member
Mar 21, 2007
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Originally posted by: zerogear
If you're only gonna be doing it once, buying Acronis isn't really worth it. I bought it since I do backups everyday, and thought it was a nice feature to have.

Exactly! For the price you are paying for Acronis you could just buy an OEM copy of the OS.
 

Stoneburner

Diamond Member
May 29, 2003
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You sure you wanna do this? As much as it seems a pain in the ass, there's nothing like a fresh clean OS install :)