Anyway to install a new mobo w/o reformating?

[ShadowFold]

I really dont feel like reinstalling windows for the 3rd time in the past month so is there a way I can pop in my new board with out reformatting? Thats the only thing im replacing besides the CPU.

[Corrosion]

I dont think its possible unless its 98 or the same mobo.

[cdawall]

its really easy actually i have done it several times once even going from an AMD to an intel :roll:

most of the times you can just install the new mobos drivers and uninstall the old ones (dont reboot during this process) and put in the new board and it should work

[Corrosion]

its really easy actually i have done it several times once even going from an AMD to an intel :roll:

most of the times you can just install the new mobos drivers and uninstall the old ones (dont reboot during this process) and put in the new board and it should work

I learned something new cool.

[ShadowFold]

Soooo just uninstall my old mobo drivers and put the new board in?

[Black Panther]

its really easy actually i have done it several times once even going from an AMD to an intel :roll:

most of the times you can just install the new mobos drivers and uninstall the old ones (dont reboot during this process) and put in the new board and it should work

Useful advice, I didn't know that. Once I changed an Asrock to a very similar Asrock, different model however, and by coincidence installed the new drivers and uninstalled the old ones without rebooting. I thought I was just lucky to get windows function normally without necessitating a re-install.

[keakar]

yes it will work in most cases as long as its amd to amd or intel to intel, you just replace motherboard and cpu and boot it up. it will usually just ask you to reactivate your windows install by putting in your cd key but sometimes it doesnt even ask for it, just dont forget to install your motherboard drivers.

now each time i did this i had to reinstall windows later after a month or so when i found it acting weird because of a few missing or corrupted files, so i think it causes issues when you do this but if you have time to find and fix these issues i think they are minor but still a PITA to deal with.

having done it a few times i feel you cannot do it cleanly because it causes minor issues that can make windows act buggy.

[ShadowFold]

Im going from ASUS To FoxConn and AMD to Intel =/

[keakar]

Im going from ASUS To FoxConn and AMD to Intel =/

you could do it and it will boot and run ok but IMO it will have minor bugs and glitches you need to find and fix so IMO it takes less time to do a clean install you dont have to debug than deal with minor issues that keep showing up over the next few weeks and may slow down your computer.

my advice is if you dont have much time you can do it so your computers still usable and do a reinstall later when you have time to do it right.

[ShadowFold]

I have plenty of time its just annoying. What bugs would occur tho? I just play video games.

[cdawall]

Im going from ASUS To FoxConn and AMD to Intel =/

i went from the system in my specs to a PD930/gigabyte mobo no issues no glitches etc.

[ShadowFold]

Oh alright. So let me get this clear, just uninstall the old mobo drivers and install the new ones, power it off then take the old mobo out and put the new one in?

[cdawall]

yep

haha i should make a guide

[ShadowFold]

Awsome! I hope it gets here today :) it should be I did 3 day shipping on tuesday.

[Black Light]

yep

haha i should make a guide

indeed

[ShadowFold]

How do I uninstall my boards drivers! I cant find anything in Add or remove programs. I got the board right now too.

[cdawall]

right click my comp->properties->hardware tab->device manager->right click on each to be uninstalled raid, sound (if onboard), IDE, USB etc.

[keakar]

I have plenty of time its just annoying. What bugs would occur tho? I just play video games.

the things i found were:

usb keyboard not found sometimes and wouldnt work unless i unplugged and replugged it in while the computer was running, rebooting didnt fix it.

i had a printing program that sometimes "lost" the default printer which i had to reset and save at least once every few days.

explorer was slow but not real slow, it just acted like i was running a single core processor yet offline tasks were fast.

sometimes if i had a program open and opened something else, when i went back to the first program it was lost in never never land and didnt respond.

sometimes the computer froze at random and even task manager wouldnt open, forcing me to reboot.

nothing serious just PITA stuff like i said. had i wanted to i could have fixed the minor glitches by reinstalling those effected programs, but a reformat and new install was best for me.

EDIT: i did uninstall the motherboard drivers and turn off power without shutting down normally like you are supposed to, but when i did, i ended up with different types of minor random program errors each of the 4 times i did a major upgrade of cpu and motherboard. once you find an error you just reinstall that program and it goes away so im not saying it cant work, im just saying keep an eye out for minor glitches that might show up.

[beyond_amusia]

It is possible.. I doubted it but I tried it following advise on here and it worked... uninstall you drivers for the chip set, audio, ect.... If it's on board, uninstall it. :)