Motherboard Change

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike
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Mike

Do you have to reinstall windows xp home when changeing
motherboards. Must you format the harddrive?
 
Thank your for the quick reply...but im looking more
toward a offical statement from microsoft. That is can be
done, if done correctly. If it isnt possiable or approved
by microsoft.that is fine.
 
Greetings --

Normally, and assuming a retail license (many OEM installations
and licenses are not transferable to a new motherboard), unless the
new motherboard is virtually identical (same chipset, same IDE
controllers, same BIOS version, etc.) to the one on which the WinXP
installation was originally performed, you'll need to perform a repair
(a.k.a. in-place upgrade) installation, at the very least:

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

As always when undertaking such a significant change, back up any
important data before starting.

This will also require re-activation, unless you have a Volume
Licensed version of WinXP Pro installed. If it's been more than 120
days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most
likely be able to activate via the internet without problem. If it's
been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.



Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH
 
Mr Chambers,

Here is the situation, my computer stop booting. So I
brang my computer to a local computer shop. They told me
that my motherboard went bad, and when I replace it. That
they would have to format the harddrive. All the hardware
is the same except the Motherboard.
I ask them why does the harddrive need to be formated?
(They are charging me for taking the data of the drive I
need.)They said, The way XP is built it requires you to
reformat that harddrive when changing motherboards. I
thought it was a plug and play thing?

My only question is does microsoft support this or not?
 
A simple "Repair Install" procedure is all that is required.

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Michael Stevens]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Mr Chambers,
|
| Here is the situation, my computer stop booting. So I
| brang my computer to a local computer shop. They told me
| that my motherboard went bad, and when I replace it. That
| they would have to format the harddrive. All the hardware
| is the same except the Motherboard.
| I ask them why does the harddrive need to be formated?
| (They are charging me for taking the data of the drive I
| need.)They said, The way XP is built it requires you to
| reformat that harddrive when changing motherboards. I
| thought it was a plug and play thing?
|
| My only question is does microsoft support this or not?
| >-----Original Message-----
| >Greetings --
| >
| > Normally, and assuming a retail license (many OEM
| installations
| >and licenses are not transferable to a new motherboard),
| unless the
| >new motherboard is virtually identical (same chipset,
| same IDE
| >controllers, same BIOS version, etc.) to the one on which
| the WinXP
| >installation was originally performed, you'll need to
| perform a repair
| >(a.k.a. in-place upgrade) installation, at the very least:
| >
| >How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
| >http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?
| ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341
| >
| > As always when undertaking such a significant change,
| back up any
| >important data before starting.
| >
| > This will also require re-activation, unless you have
| a Volume
| >Licensed version of WinXP Pro installed. If it's been
| more than 120
| >days since you last activated that specific Product Key,
| you'll most
| >likely be able to activate via the internet without
| problem. If it's
| >been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.
| >
| >
| >
| >Bruce Chambers
| >--
| >Help us help you:
| >
| >
| >
| >You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever
| count on
| >having both at once. - RAH
| >
| >
| message
| >| >> Do you have to reinstall windows xp home when changeing
| >> motherboards. Must you format the harddrive?
| >
| >
| >.
| >
 
In (e-mail address removed)
Thank your for the quick reply...but im looking more
toward a offical statement from microsoft. That is can be
done, if done correctly. If it isnt possiable or approved
by microsoft.that is fine.
Click to expand...


Carey has given you good information, but if you're looking for
"a offical statement from microsoft," then ask Microsoft. You've
asked in microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics, a peer support
newsgroup.


--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

-----Original Message-----
Changing a Motherboard or Moving a Hard Drive with XP Installed
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Michael Stevens]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

----------------------------------------------------------
------------------------


| Do you have to reinstall windows xp home when changeing
| motherboards. Must you format the harddrive?
.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Mike the information you are getting from the computer shop is not fully
correct. I have swapped out motherboards on numerous occasions and have used
the Repair Install process that has been advised by Carey and others. It
works fine.

However the computer shop is not totally wrong. I suspect that they are
giving thought to Windows Product Activation and the fact that a change in
motherboards may trigger WPA. This in itself is not a problem as you only
need to reactivate your copy of XP again and that is certainly fine by
Microsoft's Licensing Agreement with you. There are many other folks who
argue that the best approach is a "fresh" or "clean" install when making
significant hardware changes. The computer shop's tech might be one of those
who follows that line of thinking. Personally I have made all types of
changes to hardware including moving a hard drive with Windows XP on it to
an other computer and a Repair Install has always worked fine for me.

You can learn more about WPA from this Microsoft site
microsoft.com/piracy/basics/activation/ and this site from Microsoft MVP
Alex Nichol http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm

However if you want an "official" statement on this from Microsoft I suggest
you call them directly.
 
Mr Chambers,

Here is the situation, my computer stop booting. So I
brang my computer to a local computer shop. They told me
that my motherboard went bad, and when I replace it. That
they would have to format the harddrive. All the hardware
is the same except the Motherboard.
I ask them why does the harddrive need to be formated?
(They are charging me for taking the data of the drive I
need.)They said, The way XP is built it requires you to
reformat that harddrive when changing motherboards. I
thought it was a plug and play thing?

My only question is does microsoft support this or not?
Click to expand...

If your Windows XP is an OEM version (e.g. one that came bundled with
a new computer) then you may have a "System Recovery Disk" rather than
a complete Windows XP Installation CD.

"System Recovery Disks" are very common with the larger computer
manufacturers and generally they contain an exact image of the
completed install of Windows XP, exactly as it was when it left the
factory.

Most often these "System Recovery Disks" do not have the capability of
doing a "repair install" of Windows XP and so your only option is to
reformat the hard drive and then use the system recovery disk to put a
factory-fresh copy of Windows XP onto the hard drive.

The repair install procedure is supported by Microsoft and is
documented in the Knowledge Base article that Bruce Chambers referred
you to However Microsoft does not require that OEMs provide a
complete installation CD with their new computers, only that they
provide some method of restoring the machine to the "as it left the
factory" condition. The System Recovery Disks fulfill this
requirement and many manufacturers have chosen to do it that way. In
fact some of them provide only a "system recovery" partition on the
hard drive and do not include a CD at all.

Hope this clarifies the situation.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
Greetings --

I can't officially speak for Microsoft, nor can anyone here, as
this is purely a peer support group. However, you should note that
one of the URLs I provided you, and which contains step-by-step
instructions for the procedure, is hosted on Microsoft's very own web
site. I don't think they'd provide instructions for a procedure of
which they disapproved, do you?

As for a format being required, it may or may not be. In any
event, backing up your data before proceeding is only common sense.

Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH
 
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