Upgrade

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gerard Wolf
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Gerard Wolf

Guys:

I am contemplating upgrading my motherboard and processor from a Abit board
with a PIII 600 to a AMD XP 25-2600 series unit. My question is this, will I
be able to change that hardware and still boot into my current OS from the
hard drive? Or will and is a reformat absolutely necessary. I have a ton of
stuff on the drive that would require weeks of upgrading if I had to
reformat. So, I was thinking it would be less expensive to just change the
mb and such without having to build an entire system from scratch.

Your thoughts?

Gerry
 
Gerard Wolf said:
Guys:

I am contemplating upgrading my motherboard and processor from a Abit board
with a PIII 600 to a AMD XP 25-2600 series unit. My question is this, will I
be able to change that hardware and still boot into my current OS from the
hard drive? Or will and is a reformat absolutely necessary. I have a ton of
stuff on the drive that would require weeks of upgrading if I had to
reformat. So, I was thinking it would be less expensive to just change the
mb and such without having to build an entire system from scratch.

Your thoughts?

Gerry
Click to expand...


You will be changing boards, so I would suggest doing a clean install. Also
to take advantage of the SSE instructions on the XP, it is recommended to do
clean install.

bluestringer
 
What's your current OS?

If it's XP, you'll need to do at least a repair installation:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

"How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP"

(In brief: set the system BIOS settings to boot from the CD drive. Boot from
the XP CD. Choose to install rather than going to the repair console. Under
install, choose repair rather than new.)

You'd have to activate XP again in the new system. It's no problem if you
have a full or upgrade version of XP, but I don't know about an OEM version.
(Some OEM versions are BIOS locked, and you wouldn't be able to install
one.)

A repair install will preserve most settings and applications, but you'll
lose everything that was installed through Windows Update. It's still less
work than a clean installation, but it's less, er, clean.

Back up everything critical first, of course.

I haven't done this with Win2k, but I asume that it's the same.

It's simpler with Win9X, but I haven't done that for a few years.

HTH.

Bob Knowlden

Address may be altered to avoid spam. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
 
You should be able to just plug it all in and install the new hardware
drivers etc. but you will probably encounter problems.
 
With Windows, if you change the motherboard you need to reformat the
harddrive and do a fresh install of Windows OR you can look forward to nasty
Registry errors.
 
Guys:

I am contemplating upgrading my motherboard and processor from a Abit board
with a PIII 600 to a AMD XP 25-2600 series unit. My question is this, will I
be able to change that hardware and still boot into my current OS from the
hard drive? Or will and is a reformat absolutely necessary.
Click to expand...

Yes. I'm convinced that will be the most expedient solution, no matter
what.
Either the change to a new cpu family, or change of mobo, each
requires a new OS config. There's people having success with XP
'repair' reinstalls, and if you have XP you should certainly try it,
but clean install is the 100% solution.
I have a ton of
stuff on the drive that would require weeks of upgrading if I had to
reformat.
Click to expand...

Documents, you just save off, of course. I live with this sort of
situation constantly, so I always organize my PCs with that in mind.
There's only the OS, swap, scratch, and buffer files on C:. I keep my
apps in D:. I simply delete the programs (keeping documents, templates
and configs) and reinstalls and repatches the apps. On E: I store
identities, online purchased software packages, patches, drivers and
upgrades (as well as other 'storage'), so I don't have to go looking
for them.
So, I was thinking it would be less expensive to just change the
mb and such without having to build an entire system from scratch.

Your thoughts?
Click to expand...

Well, you have some work ahead of you. If you don't have XP, I don't
think that can be helped.


ancra
 
Why would a fresh install require a reformat ? It is possible to either
reinstall the OS upon the existing (less recommended, but it keeps most of
the settings and installations) or just deleting all files in the windows
directory and installing after a clean CD or FD boot.
 
Why would a fresh install require a reformat ? It is possible to either
reinstall the OS upon the existing (less recommended, but it keeps most of
the settings and installations) or just deleting all files in the windows
directory and installing after a clean CD or FD boot.
Click to expand...

Yes you can. It is called a Repair Install.

Do note, that if the OS is an OEM version, the licende belongs to the
old computer, which by MS's definition is the Mobo.
 
Gary Tait said:
Yes you can. It is called a Repair Install.

Do note, that if the OS is an OEM version, the licende belongs to the
old computer, which by MS's definition is the Mobo.
Click to expand...
So, if a powersurge (for matter of example) fries my mobo, is it (legally
speaking) as bad as if i'd burn my license ? ;)
There cannot be a complete and accurate technical definition of a uniquely
identifiable computer system, when it comes to pc's, which are so modular
and plug-and-playble (or is it pliable ?)
 
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