Replacing motherboard and keeping hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter John
  • Start date Start date
J

John

Hi,

I'm about to replace my motherboard, memory, video card etc, but not my hard
drive on a Vista PC. Ideally I'd like to just rebuild the machine and plug
in the old drive and click repair (aka Win XP) but is this possible in
Vista?

I've got a number of VPCs set up on the drive and I'd really like to avoid
the pain of downloading and a reinstalling them all again.

Thanks

John
 
John said:
Hi,

I'm about to replace my motherboard, memory, video card etc, but not my
hard drive on a Vista PC. Ideally I'd like to just rebuild the machine
and plug in the old drive and click repair (aka Win XP) but is this
possible in Vista?

I've got a number of VPCs set up on the drive and I'd really like to avoid
the pain of downloading and a reinstalling them all again.
Click to expand...

Most of the time it is unnecessary to do a repair after swapping
motherboard. If you're having to repair then it means you have left Windows
set to boot using incompatible storage controller drivers.
In future, before you swap out the motherboard, go into Device Manage -> IDE
/ ATAPI Controllers, and double click the controller in there and go to
update driver -> do not search -> manually select driver from a list, and
change to "Standard whatever". You do not need/want to do anything with the
child-devices ("Primary Channel", "Secondary Channel") - leave these alone,
it's the parent device - the controller, that needs it's driver reverting to
a more generic one.

So you are changing it from VIA 8237x Ultra ATA, or SiS Integrated IDE, or
Intel 8201 whatever, to "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE", or "Standard Hard
Disk Controller" or whatever.

This gives you a pretty good chance that it'll boot up just fine with the
new motherboard, although there are some exceptions. Sometimes you need to
load the drivers up as RAID drivers which is a bit more involved.

Procedure should probably be the same for Vista, unless they've altered
things so that it's not necessary any more (i.e. falling back to a generic
driver when the configured driver fails).
 
John said:
Hi,

I'm about to replace my motherboard, memory, video card etc, but not my hard
drive on a Vista PC. Ideally I'd like to just rebuild the machine and plug
in the old drive and click repair (aka Win XP) but is this possible in
Vista?

I've got a number of VPCs set up on the drive and I'd really like to avoid
the pain of downloading and a reinstalling them all again.

Thanks

John
Click to expand...


Sadly, Vista lacks the repair (in-place upgrade) capabilities of WinXP.
You can try, but you may end up performing a clean installation, anyway.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
 
Most of the time it is unnecessary to do a repair after swapping
motherboard.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but things have changed a lot since Win9X and WinNT. Both Win2K
and WinXP almoist always require at least a repair installation upon the
change of the motherboard.





--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
 
Bruce Chambers said:
Sorry, but things have changed a lot since Win9X and WinNT. Both Win2K
and WinXP almoist always require at least a repair installation upon the
change of the motherboard.
Click to expand...

The process I was referring to was for Windows XP. I know what I am doing
and have done it hundreds of times. Doesn't the message
"INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE" suggest anything to you?
 
Carl said:
The process I was referring to was for Windows XP. I know what I am
doing and have done it hundreds of times. Doesn't the message
"INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE" suggest anything to you?
Click to expand...


Sure, but the storage device controllers are just a small portion of a
modern motherboard's components. Your technique may well allow WinXP to
boot on the new motherboard, but it won't result in a stable
installation. Many more drivers need to be replaced, hence the
preference for a repair installation by experienced technicians.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
 
Bruce Chambers said:
Sure, but the storage device controllers are just a small portion of a
modern motherboard's components. Your technique may well allow WinXP to
boot on the new motherboard, but it won't result in a stable installation.
Many more drivers need to be replaced, hence the preference for a repair
installation by experienced technicians.
Click to expand...

It results in a perfectly fine installation almost every time, as long as
the architectures aren't light years apart. It doens't fix mismatched HALs,
e.g. if moving from a non-ACPI machine, you'll still have no ACPI after
swapping to a newer board, but this is rarely a problem anyway. A more
common problem is motherboards failing due to bad capacitors, and
same-brand-chipset motherboards not being available.

The only thing to be aware of is if moving from an IDE or (IDE-emulated
SATA) system to an AHCI system you would want to change to the manufacturers
AHCI driver rather than to Microsoft's Standard PCI IDE driver.

I'm afraid the preference is down to ignorance, not experience.
 
BS! It works 50% of the time on XP.
But, it also causes an unstable OS, as the orginal hardware Drivers are
still installed.
Listen to other people's experience cockhead!
 
Carl said:
It results in a perfectly fine ....
Click to expand...


This is a new usage of "perfectly fine" with which I am not familiar.
What is your criteria? One failure in 3 equals "close enough?"

... installation almost ....
Click to expand...


I don't get paid for "almost." I have to stand behind my work; "good
enough" won't do.

... every time, as long
as the architectures aren't light years apart. It doens't fix mismatched
HALs, e.g. if moving from a non-ACPI machine, you'll still have no ACPI
after swapping to a newer board, but this is rarely a problem anyway.
Click to expand...


And a new usage of the word "rarely!"
A
more common problem is motherboards failing due to bad capacitors, and
same-brand-chipset motherboards not being available.
Click to expand...

Your point?
The only thing to be aware of is if moving from an IDE or (IDE-emulated
SATA) system to an AHCI system you would want to change to the
manufacturers AHCI driver rather than to Microsoft's Standard PCI IDE
driver.
Click to expand...

All of which supports my position, rather than your own.

I'm afraid the preference is down to ignorance, not experience.
Click to expand...


Ah, yes. Offer insult when reason fails.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
 
Mick Murphy said:
BS! It works 50% of the time on XP.
But, it also causes an unstable OS, as the orginal hardware Drivers are
still installed.
Listen to other people's experience cockhead!
Click to expand...

Sorry, you're wrong!

I think you'll find many large OEMs pre-install drivers for all kinds of
different hardware on the machines that they supply. They obviously use a
very generic image.
 
Carl Farrington said:
It results in a perfectly fine installation almost every time, as long as
the architectures aren't light years apart. It doens't fix mismatched
HALs, e.g. if moving from a non-ACPI machine, you'll still have no ACPI
after swapping to a newer board, but this is rarely a problem anyway. A
more common problem is motherboards failing due to bad capacitors, and
same-brand-chipset motherboards not being available.

The only thing to be aware of is if moving from an IDE or (IDE-emulated
SATA) system to an AHCI system you would want to change to the
manufacturers AHCI driver rather than to Microsoft's Standard PCI IDE
driver.

I'm afraid the preference is down to ignorance, not experience.
Click to expand...


I learned through experience that with XP when changing a motherboard don't
even try to boot once. Boot from a CD and do a repair install. Otherwise you
experience comebacks and dissatisfied customers. I used to use your method.
I don't have near the same experience with Vista but the experience I do
have is leaning towards a full backup then clean install.
 
Bruce Chambers said:
This is a new usage of "perfectly fine" with which I am not familiar. What
is your criteria? One failure in 3 equals "close enough?"
Click to expand...

Perfectly fine = system works as it should.
I don't get paid for "almost." I have to stand behind my work; "good
enough" won't do.
Click to expand...

There is no "good enough". It either works or doesn't. 99% of the time it
works. If it doesn't work, you fall back to a repair install. It's never
left in some kind of semi-working limbo, as you seem to have erroneously
presumed. When it doesn't work there is usually a good reason (IDE to AHCI
being one).
And a new usage of the word "rarely!"
Click to expand...

It's rarely been an issue for me.
Your point?
Click to expand...

My point is that this is one scenario where you may be regularly changing to
different-chipset motherboards in systems if you are maintaining computers
for businesses.

Honestly, there's no need to argue about it, just try it. I've been doing it
for many years without issue.
All of which supports my position, rather than your own.
Click to expand...

Not really. It's all about preparation. The whole point is to prepare the
system for the new motherboard. You can go through and replace all
manufacturer-specific drivers whilst you're at it. I used to replace all
manufacturer specific drivers with XP's own generic drivers prior to the
board swap - "Intel AGP Controller" to "Standard PCI - PCI Bridge", "Intel
Enhanced USB" to "Standard Enhanced USB", etc, until I realised it was
making no difference. The new kit is all detected as it should be.
Ah, yes. Offer insult when reason fails.
Click to expand...

It's not an insult. Your position makes it quite clear that you do not
perform this procedure, so how can you tell me about the reliability or
performance of it?
 
Kerry Brown said:
I learned through experience that with XP when changing a motherboard
don't even try to boot once. Boot from a CD and do a repair install.
Otherwise you experience comebacks and dissatisfied customers. I used to
use your method. I don't have near the same experience with Vista but the
experience I do have is leaning towards a full backup then clean install.
Click to expand...

Your experience has been different to mine then, but I do go out of my way
to try to understand why something hasn't worked, so that I can make it work
the next time.

Each to their own, but for Bruce to say that a repair install is "required"
(as in, every time) is simply not true, and seems to me to suggest that he
never did prepare those HDC drivers in the first place.

Honestly I don't understand the hostility (not from you). I am advising the
chap (the OP) on a procedure which could (and almost certainly will) save
hims lots of unnecessary time and effort. If it doesn't work he can always
fall back to the repair install.

It would be interesting to know if a repair install does even remove any
references to non-present hardware in the registry, since that seems to be
Bruce's hangup. All current hardware drivers are detected and installed upon
the first sucessful boot.
 
Carl Farrington said:
Your experience has been different to mine then, but I do go out of my way
to try to understand why something hasn't worked, so that I can make it
work the next time.

Each to their own, but for Bruce to say that a repair install is
"required" (as in, every time) is simply not true, and seems to me to
suggest that he never did prepare those HDC drivers in the first place.

Honestly I don't understand the hostility (not from you). I am advising
the chap (the OP) on a procedure which could (and almost certainly will)
save hims lots of unnecessary time and effort. If it doesn't work he can
always fall back to the repair install.

It would be interesting to know if a repair install does even remove any
references to non-present hardware in the registry, since that seems to be
Bruce's hangup. All current hardware drivers are detected and installed
upon the first sucessful boot.
Click to expand...


For me it comes down to time and customer satisfaction. I had enough
motherboard upgrades come back because of intermittent problems that I have
gone to a method of immediately booting from the CD and doing a repair
install after every motherboard upgrade. It doesn't take that long and I
have far fewer come backs.
 
I am NOT talking about pre-installed OEMs.

I build and repair computer for a business amongst other IT businesses I have.
I use OEM disks.
 
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