DescentBB

If I have a computer, and I put in a new Mobo, CPU and RAM, but leave everything else like HDD and ****, will I need to reformat the hard drive and re-install the OS?
thanks you

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Arial" size="3">Originally posted by Sage:
<b> If I have a computer, and I put in a new Mobo, CPU and RAM, but leave everything else like HDD and ****, will I need to reformat the hard drive and re-install the OS?
thanks you</b></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

generally, yes. You might not have to if the new mobo uses the same chipset manufacturer - like replacing via w/ via, or nforce w/ nforce - because the drivers are the same.

Usually its recommended. They are a ton of issues that can arise from a motheboard swap especially if its to a different platform.

I always recommend formating.

You can do it, though I did do a mobo swap before and kept the OS intact and it remained stable and had no problems. This was with Win98 however. You will have to do some driver cleanup using Driver Cleaner if you take the lazy-mans route.

Seriously... you would be a fool not to reformat...


Can't you hear the voice in the back of your head!

Stability issues
driver errors
hardware problems
day in and day out!

The above posters who are LAZY as they say, are also the ones that spent countless hours with posts here in the tech forum trying to resolve these STRANGE issues they have with the O/S....and they wonder why!

BE SMART!

NT Yes theres no way around it eather
9x No but its a good idea to do

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Arial" size="3">Originally posted by Warlock:
NT Yes theres no way around it eather</font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Unless the boot controller is the same, yeah you'd have to format. If the controller on the two boards are identical then Windows *WILL* load. HOWEVER, you'll also run into stability issues so you will have to reload Windows.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Arial" size="3">Originally posted by BUBBALOU:
<b> Seriously... you would be a fool not to reformat...


Can't you hear the voice in the back of your head!

Stability issues
driver errors
hardware problems
day in and day out!

The above posters who are LAZY as they say, are also the ones that spent countless hours with posts here in the tech forum trying to resolve these STRANGE issues they have with the O/S....and they wonder why!

BE SMART!</b></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, there is a whole line of posts with my name on it listing the hundreds of mysterious problems im having. Yes, I am a regular poster in the tech forum.

Get some glasses you geek.

FWIW, I went through at least 3 upgrades w/ via chipset mobos and never had problems and never had to reinstall XP. Maybe only via drivers will allow that. I'd guess that it might also work upgrading from nforce to nforce since their drivers aren't specific to a single chipset version.

When I switched from via to nforce, I couldn't figure out a way to install nforce drivers on a via system. There may be a way using 'hardware profiles' or something, but I just reistalled XP. Not that big of a deal.

Why would you format???

XP is not that dumb - please give MS some credit where it's due. OMFG - I don't believe I just wrote that!

Before shutting down for the final time prior to ripping the sh!t out of your box, here's what you do: open up Device Manager and remove all the Motherboard Devices. You've got to know which ones to remove though, because removing too many can mean problems.

I'm sure you can Google for a list of them.

However, if you can't be bothered, just shut down normally, and let XP deal with the mish-mash of device drivers after the rebuild. Yes, you'll have a lot of unused device drivers hanging around - but so what?

I've done motherboard upgrades with Win95, Win98, Win2K Pro and XP Pro - and have never had any problems, except with 95 - where a reinstall over the top cured it.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Arial" size="3">Originally posted by Mobius:
<b> Why would you format???

XP is not that dumb - please give MS some credit where it's due. OMFG - I don't believe I just wrote that!</b></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Because you would inherit instability problems. Its like copying Microsoft Office from one drive to another and sticking it in another computer. It just doesn't work properly. Its always best to have a fresh installation of the operating system when you're making a major change to the computer. HOWEVER, that being said, formatting the drive isn't necessary. You can just re-install a copy of Windows ontop of the old installation and go from there.

Yeas, I forgot to mention this is with the old family computer that runs Win98 SE. We are thinking about upgrading it to one of my old motherboards/cpu/ram/gfx card because I upgraded to a P4.

Mobi is right-- reformatting if you don't have to is just dumb. Just uninstall your bloody chipset drivers before you pull the plug, if you even had any installed to begin with! OMG guys was that so hard?

Windows isn't dumb. Having a few extra .inf files in your Windows folder will not detract from stability, security, or even sexiness.

Installing and uninstalling Paint Shop Pro probably leaves behind more files and more registry keys than the bloody chipset drivers.

By the way, to whoever "fixed" my avatar, I'm sorry if your super-duper W3C-compliant open source Linux Kernel 2.4.4.45B Geoplanet Zozilla 1.6-based Kankersore build #123.74 chokes on a bad URL. At least a bad link is better than ogling at some 10-yr old Japanese cartoon girl or some animal you ride from a Disney movie or some 350KB animated gif compressed to 250KB.

Also go:
start\run\msconfig\starup...then uncheck everything listed. then click on general tab and click on "selective startup". Shut down and swap out what you want to replace. Reboot, hit f8 and go into safe mode and just shut down with the start\shut down\restart command. Let it now start into boot straight into windows. Hopefully win98 will go through "detect new hardware" and get you back up. After this you can go back into msconfig and check off those startup items you unchecked.