usasma said:
Hi! I've had the exact same situation - I upgraded my P4PE mobo to a
P4P800
SE motherboard a while back. The change is fairly easy, but very
detailed.
Here's a link that I used when doing it:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html
Follow the directions exactly - and don't be surprised if problems pop up!
It seems to revolve around making the minimum of hardware changes (so it's
a
good thing that you stayed with Asus). There's lot's of horror stories on
the web about this procedure - but having done it myself, I found that it
wasn't so bad. Also, I imaged my hard drive prior to starting it - so if
it
failed, I had a good backup ready and waiting (didn't need it tho')
Good luck!
Sierras:
Of course things can go wrong as we've all learned working with PCs. But in
most cases a change in motherboards, while a significant undertaking, isn't
terribly difficult to accomplish without any gross problems.
Do this...
1. First of all, if it's at all possible, back up whatever important files
that you can't afford to lose from your present HD. I'm assuming you have
another computer available to you (since you posted a message to this
newsgroup), so if you can install your HD in that computer and perform the
backup, do so. Better still, using that second PC, if you have available a
disk imaging program such as Symantec's Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image,
clone the contents of your HD to another internal or external HD should you
have another drive available to you. The point to all of this is that things
*can* go wrong, notwithstanding my opening comment, so it's *always* prudent
to back up any important/critical data before undertaking any major
operation such as a motherboard change.
2. Install your new motherboard with the minimum of connected components, i.
e., your processor & heatsink, your RAM, your video card, and of course, the
power supply. Connect your monitor. Nothing else, not even your keyboard or
mouse is needed at this point. Turn on the power. You *must* get a screen
display at this point. Doesn't matter what it "says". Just so you get a
display. If you don't, you go no further. You find out what's the problem
and you correct it.
3. Assuming no problems, you install & connect each component in turn.
4. Boot up with your HD connected. You may be lucky and the system will
boot. You may be even luckier in that XP will pick up at least some of your
drivers. But even assuming the system boots, you will most likely need some
or all of the drivers from the ASUS installation CD.
5. But the chances are good that the system will not boot at the outset. In
that case you will need to perform a Repair install of the OS as mentioned
by the above poster. You mentioned that your XP installation disk does not
contain SP2. It would be best if it did. If possible, create a
"slipstreamed" version containing SP2. There's a program called
"Autostreamer" that makes it relatively easy to accomplish this. See
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=223562 to download the
program. In any event, in one way or another you'll need to install SP2 +
all the Windows Critical Updates following the Repair install.
6. The Michael Stevens site mentioned by the above poster contains detailed
information on performing a Repair install. You can also do a Google search
on "XP repair install". There are a number of sites that provide
step-by-step instructions re this process.
7. It's a near-certainty that you will need to again Activate your system
with MS following the motherboard change.
Anna