Has anyone here ever been able change a motherboard and processor and get it to boot to an os without reinstalling it?
I just did that the other day, surprised me that it worked. I had an old Pentium 2 that I let my 3 yr old bang on. It died after a strong thunderstorm, probably a lightning strike. Someone gave me a K6-2-400 and Asus motherboard. I exchanged it still using the same video, sound card, ram chips, and everything else except the motherboard and processor. It was running Windows 98SE. It booted and had to detect a lot of new stuff, new PCI bridge, etc but detected everything and has ran stable for the past month. Windows Device Mangler showed nothing with the yellow exclamations beside it or anything. The only thing I had to reinstall was the USB to PS2 joystick adapter software. Usually that does not work well though. It is best to reformat and reinstall when switching motherboards. I think since I was using the same peripheral hardware was the only reason this worked.
I have changed Mobos, cpus etc and u dont need to re-install the OS, as Xian said. Sometimes formatting and re-installing is a pain if u have programs that u dont have CD'z for etc. but if u do, backup and format Regards CoZZa
Although you can still boot up without re-installing the O/S, I wouldn't for long. Myself, I've gotten into the habbit of re-formatting and re-installing Windows every 6 months; even with no hardware changes. Keeps my system running nice and smooth. Also forces me to back up every 6 months.
I do the same as ken0042, I format about every 6 months, it may be a pain, but i would rather have a good, fast running PC, then a slow piece of crap.... Also helps especially with DVD backups Regards CoZZa
How well it will work depends on the OS and the hardware involved. I had an install of Windows 98SE that I moved from 1 PC to another daily for several months and never had any problems, but I've had others that wouldn't boot correctly after changing motherboards 1 time. With NT based operating systems (NT/2000/XP) it's a little different because of the way the MB chipset drivers are handled. With NT 4 it couldn't be done because the only time those drivers could be installed was when the OS was installed. Theoretically you could replace the MB without re-installing if the new MB used the same chipset, but I've never seen it tried. I don't remember if it required the same chipset for the new MB, but my experience is that it didn't work very often. I once had to move a classroom full of students (with new Win2000 installs) to a different classroom. They kept their hard drives and tried booting them in PCs with identical hardware to the ones they installed on. Only 4 or 5 PCs out of 22 booted and the rest had to be re-installed. Windows XP seems to do a better job. I had several students in that same class who started bringing XP drives from home (from completely different hardware) to run the same computers that gave us problems with 2000 and they never had any problems. In any case, I always recommend a fresh install for a new MB. IMHO any other approach is asking for trouble.
If using a NT based system (NT, 2000, XP), before you install a new OS, uninstall the ide drivers shutdown your computer. Then install your hardware. Turn on the computer and install drivers as needed for the other hardware. That's how i did it, but it is not recommended. It's a bit easier just to reinstall everything just to be on the safe side.
