Swapping MB and Processor - Do I need to reformat?

[Bumrush99]

I'm swapping an Intel MB w/ P4 3.0 for an Asus K8V AMD 64 3200 system.

I have tons of stuff on my primary drive and really don't feel like reformatting. In terms of chipset drivers and other registry settings, how important is it to reformat to get maximum performance out of the new board??? Do I need to remove the old settings manually or will XP Pro automatically update the drivers without causing harm to the system and/or performance? TYIA

 

[DotheDamnTHing]

my friend i think your going to need to reformat especially since your moving from an intel to amd processor

 

[dmw16]

I would say it is essential. You wont get the true performance outta that machine if you dont. Infact it may be horribly unstable.
-doug

 

[Bumrush99]

Pretty clear cut.. I already knew the answer, just wanted someone to give me hope thanks

 

[Matthias99]

No!

You do not need to reinstall WinXP to switch motherboards. Just pop in your XP CD, and start the install process. It will detect your existing installation and ask you if you want to do a "Repair Installation" on top of that. What this does is basically wipes out all the hardware info in the registry, and removes your existing device drivers, and then redetects and reinstalls all your hardware from scratch. Works like a charm (although you'll still need to update your chipset drivers, directX, video drivers, etc.)

 

[stevty2889]

The repair installation may work, but you would really be better off reformating, XP does not like it when you change motherboards, unless they have the same chipset.

 

[Insane3D]

Yeah...repair will work, but it's a half-a$$ed way of doing things. For a high end setup like that, anything other than a fresh install is a waste of time IMO.

 

[Cerb]

Update your IDE controller driver to a standard dual-channel IDE controller. Shut down and DO NOT REBOOT.

Now attach the HD to the new setup, and it should boot. Then you go through re-installing drivers, and DirectX wouldn't hurt, Either.
So far this method has worked all but one time, and that was on a MicronPC machine, in which case the repair install worked.

 

[Insane3D]

Why do people go through so much trouble to avoid a fresh install? I just don't get it?

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Insane3D
Why do people go through so much trouble to avoid a fresh install? I just don't get it?

'Trouble': ~3-15 minutes
Fresh install: ~3-7 days.

 

[Bumrush99]

Either way, even if I figure our how to do an XP repair, the moment my FPS drop during a game I'm going to assume that its related to having a clogged system.. I'm better off just doing a clean install and KNOWING that the performance of the system is correct.

 

[reverend1313]

If you just backup all your apps and files on a CD or 2 or a second have drive it would only take 3-7 days if you were completely inept.

 

[sisooktom]

Originally posted by: reverend1313
If you just backup all your apps and files on a CD or 2 or a second have drive it would only take 3-7 days if you were completely inept.

Agreed. Not to mention that reinstalling allows you to rethink what you really want to install.

 

[imported_Bunter]

Also gives you the opportunity to consider putting the OS in its own partition. That way, if and when you go through this again reformatting doesn't wipe out data. You will probably wind up reinstalling all your software, but the data is still sitting there waiting for you.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Bunter
Also gives you the opportunity to consider putting the OS in its own partition. That way, if and when you go through this again reformatting doesn't wipe out data. You will probably wind up reinstalling all your software, but the data is still sitting there waiting for you.

You don't need a separate partition to do this.
A reinstall replaces everything under the windows directory.
All else is left intact.
What on Earth does putting it on a separate partition give you?

 

[imported_Bunter]

No, you don't need to reformat to reinstall. Some of us do to clean things up. Being able to reformat the partition without regard to losing data on it allows us that option.

It has also saved me once when a Windows partition became corrupted because of a hardware failure. But the other partition and its data was unaffected by the ordeal.

 

[CraigRT]

platform swaps are iffy, sometimes they work, sometimes not.
switching one Nvidia board for another, or something like that, usually works out just fine, but platform swapping not usually so good.
I did have it work a few times though. went from a PIII 933 (i815) to an Athlon 1.33 (KT133A) and it worked.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I don't know why everyone thinks that this is such a big deal.

The biggest problem, is the design of NT-based OSes and how they deal with mass storage controllers. The easiest solution, is to put your boot drive on a PCI IDE controller, and then just move both the controller and the HD to the new system. That takes care of any potential issues from a "INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE" BSOD.

The only other issues that I've had, and they don't always happen, is AGP GART and associated video drivers. I recommended (to be safe), uninstall both of them before swapping the mobo.

Other than that, I can't see any reason to re-format and re-install, and certainly not for performance reasons.

I've migrated my multi-boot (Win98se + W2K SP2) system between many different mobos over the years, with nearly zero issues. This includes going from an Intel PII/i440BX system to an AMD XP/KT400 system.

 

[ElFenix]

i wouldn't format, i'd just install windows alongside the other, that way you don't lose anything, and likely you have enough HD space not to worry about it.


the other thing is just swap it and see how it works. since i did the above procedure last time i changed motherboards, the old windows install is still there, and still works fine (using it right now, in fact). changes since that install was done:
kt266a --> nforce 2 baord
gf3 ti200 --> 9800 pro

heck, i could do a timedemo to see just how different it is, i doubt there is much

232 in the old
230 in the new

must have some TSRs or something

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: Cerb

Originally posted by: Insane3D
Why do people go through so much trouble to avoid a fresh install? I just don't get it?

'Trouble': ~3-15 minutes
Fresh install: ~3-7 days.

Are you high? 3-7 days for a fresh install?!?! It takes me a total of about 30 minutes on either my i865PE system or my NF2 system. It will be even quicker one I integrate the post SP1 hotfixes on my custom XP CD that already has the latest SATA, ATI, NF2, DX9 on it so I don't need to bother with installing them after initial boot.

3-7 days....WTF...LOL.

You...crack pipe...put...down...now. :roll:

 

[MRGOOCH]

Is there a way to copy the driver files. How would you find them ?

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Insane3D

Originally posted by: Cerb

Originally posted by: Insane3D
Why do people go through so much trouble to avoid a fresh install? I just don't get it?

'Trouble': ~3-15 minutes
Fresh install: ~3-7 days.

Are you high? 3-7 days for a fresh install?!?! It takes me a total of about 30 minutes on either my i865PE system or my NF2 system. It will be even quicker one I integrate the post SP1 hotfixes on my custom XP CD that already has the latest SATA, ATI, NF2, DX9 on it so I don't need to bother with installing them after initial boot.

3-7 days....WTF...LOL.

You...crack pipe...put...down...now. :roll:

Install: 30 min.
Windows Update: 30 min
Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, Litestep, 3DMark, Audiograbber, Everest, Foobar2000, Gaim, Nero, PAN, Notetab Light, Rivatuner, MBM 5, etc.: 2-3 hours.
Setting them all back just the way I have them now in my two-year-old Win2k install: several days of use.
I have good responsiveness, all benchmarks put my system right where a similar PC with a fresh XP install should be.

 

[Insane3D]

That's fine....you should have said it takes you 3-7 days. To claim a fresh install takes the better part of a week is flat out wrong. If you wanted to bother, you could cutomize your 2K install CD so it put all the settings the way you liked it upon install using the deploy tools and hte WINNT.sif file. To each his own I guess. Personally, I change hardware so often, I usually do a fresh install every few months or so.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Insane3D
That's fine....you should have said it takes you 3-7 days. To claim a fresh install takes the better part of a week is flat out wrong. If you wanted to bother, you could cutomize your 2K install CD so it put all the settings the way you liked it upon install using the deploy tools and hte WINNT.sif file. To each his own I guess. Personally, I change hardware so often, I usually do a fresh install every few months or so.

I don't know anyone who can go from needing to reinstall to being fully productive on their PC in less than half a week. The re-install itself doesn't take that long, but it's a royal PITA because of all the other work it entails.

 

[Insane3D]

Well, I'm not going to argue about the people you know, but I can speak for myself, and it doesn't take anywhere near that long. It sounds like you are someone who doesn't often do fresh installs (since you mention having a 2 year old Win2K install), so maybe for you, it is that way. I can speak for myself, and the PC's I build for clients, and it does NOT take the better part of week to set up a PC.

As I said previously, you can customize the install CD's so things are set up the way you like it, if you want to spend the time doing it. Personally, I make myself cutomized OS install CD's for each of my systems, and have a networked storage drive that I can quickly dump any files that need to be backed up to, so at worst it takes me about a afternoon or so to get things back the way I want.