How to upgrade motherboard without reinstalling Windows

[efin]

Probably been discussed before, and I know most people just say it's better to wipe and do a clean install. But I've been using this install of Windows through four motherboards without any problems whatsoever, and I know I'm not the only one who would rather do it this way.

I've just never had as much of a problem doing the actual move until I had Vista, which doesn't have the Repair Install that XP has (found out the hard way ). In the middle of the chaos, I found this nice article that I wish I had found a loooooong time ago. It is kind of old, so forgive me if you guys already know this trick.

How to install a new motherboard without reinstalling Windows

Basically, you set all your IDE and SATA controllers to the generic standard IDE controllers in device manager, using the generic Microsoft drivers listed when you select "Show compatible hardware." Also, if you're using AGP, the change that to "PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge."

That's it. Once you reboot and everything looks all good to go, just swap it right out and you should have any issues. This should work for both XP and Vista (I did it in Vista).

The article is worth reading, though, because he explains how to get rid of the old hardware drivers and stuff afterwards. That's easy, too.

PS~ If you're also wiping your GPU drivers beforehand, make your life easy and have the new ones downloaded before you swap. My LAN drivers were the last to install, and that was a whole lotta 640x480 before I was finally able to grab them online.

[Nosferatu]

I've changed MB and CPU (from Gigabyte NF3+A64 to Asus P35+c2d 8400) without reinstalling Vista x86.
1. changed IDE driver to generic
2. uninstalled relevant drivers
3. removed all relevant devices from device manager
4. safe boot
5. Driver cleaner
6. change HW
7. boot
8. Vista installed proper drivers (some were auto found, others installed manually)
9. updated drivers to latest versiona
10. PROFIT!

Vista continues to work great, no problems whatsoever...

[KAC]

I never reinstall XP whenever I switch my hardware. XP going strong for almost 4 years now. Installed it with my P4 2.8C machine back in the day

[cmar]

Same here, just do as advised above :

Swap HDD driver from chipset specific to Microsoft generic

Boot into safe mode (cuts off internet too)

Unload all chipset specific drivers (unless new board uses same chipset family)

Power down

Swap hardware

Power up, let windows boot normally

re-install drivers

Remove all system backups (will re-install old drivers)

Enjoy

[SteadVéx]

hrmm, with vista i just plug the drive into a different mb and it just seems to load up the correct drivers, usually takes about 3 reboots for it to be fully functional again installing stuff, with xp I agree you had to remove all the drivers for the chipset etc otherwise it would bsod on boot

[KAC]

hrmm, with vista i just plug the drive into a different mb and it just seems to load up the correct drivers, usually takes about 3 reboots for it to be fully functional again installing stuff, with xp I agree you had to remove all the drivers for the chipset etc otherwise it would bsod on boot

That isn't correct atleast in my case. I always swap the hardware before removing the drivers of the previous motherboard. Has never failed me atleast.

[Dr. Zhivago]

Swapping motherboards without uninstalling the Chipset Drivers and setting the IDE Controllers to Generic only works if you stay with the same chipset manufacturer. For instance: Intel > Intel, VIA > VIA, Nvidia > Nvidia, etc...

Even then you're not guaranteed success.

If you move from VIA > Intel or some such, chances are it's not going to boot successfully. This is NOT a concrete rule, but one you can generally bank on.

My .02

And to the OP, good post, but this has been discussed here a LOT. Caveboy should add your link to the important info sticky.

[caveman-jim]

Good idea, Dr. Z - added to the Gen HW and OS forum important info threads.

[cmar]

If you move from VIA > Intel or some such, chances are it's not going to boot successfully. This is NOT a concrete rule, but one you can generally bank on.

Unbelievably I went from VIA Intel, to Intel when I went to this board and all I did was remove the chipset drivers and reboot - load Intel drivers and it worked, and has ever since - six months ago.
Previous time I went from ULI AMD to VIA Intel and it was not so happy - BSOD, and repair install died. Reformat and re-install needed, oh well, it was an old XP install anyway.

[aviphysics]

As someone with an upgrade version of vista that requires me to install 2000 on a computer that is not 2000 compatible I want to thank you.

Really though if you have no other options you can call MS and they will help you install your upgrade without having to install an old OS.

[Pepsin]

I had zero problems switching from an AMD690 to an AMD790FX board.

Before removing the old board, I set the SATA mode to IDE Emulation in BIOS, and booted into Windows once so it loaded the default drivers. I also uninstalled the Catalyst drivers, just in case they'd need a re-install to kick into PCI-Express V2.0 mode.

I then replaced the board, booted up, installed the AHCI drivers, rebooted and switched to AHCI mode and reinstalled the Cats.

[Espíritu_de_América]

You all sound like a bunch of freaks to people that reinstall an OS every 2-3 months. I remember doing that a lot when I ran Windows XP. After a while I really hated reinstalling all of my applications (games).

[Shapeshifter]

will this stop vista from saying you need to enter a new cd key for the hardware change?

[efin]

will this stop vista from saying you need to enter a new cd key for the hardware change?

I'm pretty sure a motherboard swap uses up all the allowable hardware changes before you need to activate again. But I believe you're allowed something like two or three activations per year without issue.

[painkiller]

So my motherboard went up in smoke... Got a new mobo is there any way to get my previous windows xp installation to work?

[moshpit]

I used to do all of the above listed things that Nosferatu and Cmar mentioned when I was on XP. For Vista, I've found the OS to be 10x more forgiving about switching chipsets out from under it. I literally moved my Vista load from a C2D + P965 chipset to a Athlon X2 + Nforce 4 SLI chipset with nothing more then putting the drive on it, and letting Vista redetect everything on it's own and reactivating it. I then moved it from that temp system to my current C2Q6600 + P35 chipset with the same minimal preperation successfully. Complete platform switch outs and Vista didn't bat an eye at it. The only thing I had to do is let the drivers redetect and reactivate. Performance and stability are still rock solid and unaffected at all.

No way I could have gotten away with all that on XP.

[efin]

So my motherboard went up in smoke... Got a new mobo is there any way to get my previous windows xp installation to work?

If you haven't already found out - yes, it requires the old Repair Install trick, but it's VERY important that you follow a very strict procedure, especially since you can't go back to your old motherboard. Here's a detailed set of instructions on what you need to do.

First step is: Do not, I repeat, DO NOT try and just boot into Windows, otherwise you might as well give up and format***. This is very important.

You need to boot from your XP CD (set that option in your BIOS). Again, very important - when it says to press any key to boot from the CD, hit the space bar or something a few times, because you really don't want to boot from the HDD.

DO NOT select the repair install on the first screen you see. Instead, hit Enter to "set up Windows now."

After it loads a bunch of drivers and stuff, you'll see it highlight your Windows install that's already on your HDD, and it'll say setup can try to repair it. NOW hit "R" for the repair install. At this point, it'll be like you're installing Windows fresh, but it will keep all of your programs/documents and most of your settings intact, but you'll need to redownload a million updates.

EDIT:
***Actually, I want to clarify this statement for others reading this post. If your motherboard is fried, and you can't put your HDD back on it to boot into Windows, this is true. However, if you still have your old WORKING motherboard and you accidentally try to boot into Windows (it will stall every time without an error or anything), you can just put your HDD back on your old one and boot up to restart this procedure. Once you've booted up, just shut down and swap all over again.

And if all is lost, before you format, you can put your HDD as a secondary on another system and usually retrieve your unprotected documents before you format.

[moshpit]

If you haven't already found out - yes, it requires the old Repair Install trick, but it's VERY important that you follow a very strict procedure, especially since you can't go back to your old motherboard. Here's a detailed set of instructions on what you need to do.

First step is: Do not, I repeat, DO NOT try and just boot into Windows, otherwise you might as well give up and format***. This is very important.

You need to boot from your XP CD (set that option in your BIOS). Again, very important - when it says to press any key to boot from the CD, hit the space bar or something a few times, because you really don't want to boot from the HDD.

DO NOT select the repair install on the first screen you see. Instead, hit Enter to "set up Windows now."

After it loads a bunch of drivers and stuff, you'll see it highlight your Windows install that's already on your HDD, and it'll say setup can try to repair it. NOW hit "R" for the repair install. At this point, it'll be like you're installing Windows fresh, but it will keep all of your programs/documents and most of your settings intact, but you'll need to redownload a million updates.

EDIT:
***Actually, I want to clarify this statement for others reading this post. If your motherboard is fried, and you can't put your HDD back on it to boot into Windows, this is true. However, if you still have your old WORKING motherboard and you accidentally try to boot into Windows (it will stall every time without an error or anything), you can just put your HDD back on your old one and boot up to restart this procedure. Once you've booted up, just shut down and swap all over again.

And if all is lost, before you format, you can put your HDD as a secondary on another system and usually retrieve your unprotected documents before you format.

Um, bullcrap. That's a bunch of extra BS for no need at all. Simply uninstalling all relevant chipset and other motherboard related drivers and running driver cleaner from safe mode pretty much makes all that extra crud about repair installs completely redundant under XP.

I've moved XP from one mobo to another hundreds of times in my line of work. To this day, I've never had to do a repair install just to move to another chipset based motherboard. It's still a lot more effort then Vista requires to move from one chipset to another, but it's still tons easier then your making it out to be.

[efin]

Um, bullcrap. That's a bunch of extra BS for no need at all. Simply uninstalling all relevant chipset and other motherboard related drivers and running driver cleaner from safe mode pretty much makes all that extra crud about repair installs completely redundant under XP.

I've moved XP from one mobo to another hundreds of times in my line of work. To this day, I've never had to do a repair install just to move to another chipset based motherboard. It's still a lot more effort then Vista requires to move from one chipset to another, but it's still tons easier then your making it out to be.

That's true, it does - but the original purpose was to help painkiller who didn't have the luxury of doing that before his mother board fried. I added that bit at the end just in case some noob came along and read that post without reading anything else.

[moshpit]

That's true, it does - but the original purpose was to help painkiller who didn't have the luxury of doing that before his mother board fried. I added that bit at the end just in case some noob came along and read that post without reading anything else.

Ah, luxury does make the difference then

[cmar]

By Moshpit

I used to do all of the above listed things that Nosferatu and Cmar mentioned when I was on XP. For Vista, I've found the OS to be 10x more forgiving about switching chipsets out from under it. I literally moved my Vista load from a C2D + P965 chipset to a Athlon X2 + Nforce 4 SLI chipset with nothing more then putting the drive on it, and letting Vista redetect everything on it's own and reactivating it. I then moved it from that temp system to my current C2Q6600 + P35 chipset with the same minimal preperation successfully. Complete platform switch outs and Vista didn't bat an eye at it. The only thing I had to do is let the drivers redetect and reactivate. Performance and stability are still rock solid and unaffected at all.

That sounds good, I've yet to move a Vista install. As I said in the Operating Systems forum the other day my experience to date of Vista is limited to one laptop install, you may recall I said I was impressed by how accepting Vista was of a wide variety of open source tools, looks like Vista's large array of built in drivers means this tolerance extends to hardware too, excellent!

[moshpit]

That sounds good, I've yet to move a Vista install. As I said in the Operating Systems forum the other day my experience to date of Vista is limited to one laptop install, you may recall I said I was impressed by how accepting Vista was of a wide variety of open source tools, looks like Vista's large array of built in drivers means this tolerance extends to hardware too, excellent!

Indeed. Vista is crazy easy to move from one machine to another.