Hardware Upgrade and Installation

[Guest]

Hi! I have old machine running Win XP prof. I want to upgrade the Mothetboard
and the CPU. How to do it without loosing all my programs, Data and
Application that installed in this Computer. What I mean without formating my
hardrive. Thanks a lot...

 

[chrispsg]

Take out the old motherboard and put the new one in....

This wont cause you to lose any programs or data. Make sure to back
everything up before the swap. Keep in mind that once the new mobo is
installed you may have to reactivate XP.

Once the new mobo is installed XP will boot and start installing all the new
drivers...

psg

 

[Bob I]

Read up
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi! I have old machine running Win XP prof. I want to upgrade the
Mothetboard and the CPU. How to do it without loosing all my
programs, Data and Application that installed in this Computer. What
I mean without formating my hardrive. Thanks a lot...

You may or may not be able to do what you want. At the very least you'l
lhave to do a repair installation of Windows XP. See "How to Perform a
Windows XP Repair Install"
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

In some cases, that may not work and you'll have to do a complete clean
installation, so be sure to back up anything you can't afford to lose before
beginning.

 

[Guest]

Upgrading the Motherboard and the CPU should have NO effect on the data
stored on Hard Drives. The only time you may have a problem is when you have
an O/S that would not recognise the partitions of an older O/S, but if you
plan on keeping the same O/S I wouldn't worry about it, but would still buy a
cheap Hard drive that is Windows Formatted and back up.

 

[Michael Stevens]

In

Take out the old motherboard and put the new one in....

This wont cause you to lose any programs or data. Make sure to back
everything up before the swap. Keep in mind that once the new mobo is
installed you may have to reactivate XP.

Once the new mobo is installed XP will boot and start installing all
the new drivers...

psg

This is not always the case, and if it fails it is very hard to recover. A
Repair Install should be done on the first boot after setting up the bios.
This will set the new hardware to the current XP installation.
See link below.
Move XP to new hardware.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Rock]

Hi! I have old machine running Win XP prof. I want to upgrade the Mothetboard
and the CPU. How to do it without loosing all my programs, Data and
Application that installed in this Computer. What I mean without formating my
hardrive. Thanks a lot...

Always have a current and complete backup of all important information.
Use a drive imaging program. Worrying about losing data from a
motherboard change, but not having a backup solution in place at all
times is asking for disaster. Data loss can occur at any time.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi! I have old machine running Win XP prof. I want to upgrade the Mothetboard
and the CPU. How to do it without loosing all my programs, Data and
Application that installed in this Computer. What I mean without formating my
hardrive. Thanks a lot...

Normally, and assuming a retail license (many OEM installations are
BIOS-locked to a specific chipset and therefore not transferable to a
new motherboard - check yours before starting), unless the new
motherboard is virtually identical (same chipset, same IDE controllers,
same BIOS version, etc.) to the one on which the WinXP installation was
originally performed, you'll need to perform a repair (a.k.a. in-place
upgrade) installation, at the very least:

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

The "why" is quite simple, really, and has nothing to do with
licensing issues, per se; it's a purely technical matter, at this point.
You've pulled the proverbial hardware rug out from under the OS. (If
you don't like -- or get -- the rug analogy, think of it as picking up a
Cape Cod style home and then setting it down onto a Ranch style
foundation. It just isn't going to fit.) WinXP, like Win2K before it,
is not nearly as "promiscuous" as Win9x when it comes to accepting any
old hardware configuration you throw at it. On installation it
"tailors" itself to the specific hardware found. This is one of the
reasons that the entire WinNT/2K/XP OS family is so much more stable
than the Win9x group.

As always when undertaking such a significant change, back up any
important data before starting.

This will also probably require re-activation, unless you have a
Volume Licensed version of WinXP Pro installed. If it's been more than
120 days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most
likely be able to activate via the Internet without problem. If it's
been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Anna]

In

This is not always the case, and if it fails it is very hard to recover. A
Repair Install should be done on the first boot after setting up the bios.
This will set the new hardware to the current XP installation.
See link below.
Move XP to new hardware.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

Michael:
As we all know (well, at least many of us know!) that following a change of
motherboards there's a strong liklihood that a Repair install will be
necessary to re:establish a functional system. However, in a significant
number of cases, the system *will* boot following a motherboard change
without further ado, thus negating the need for a Repair install. The
reason(s) why this occurs in some cases and not others is not clear (at
least to me). But it does happen.

In my experience involving a rather substantial number of motherboard
changes - perhaps well over 100 - we *always* attempt an initial boot
following such a change. Obviously should that initial boot fail, we
subsequently pursue a Repair install. I cannot recall a single instance
whereby this initial boot, regardless of whether it succeeded or failed,
caused future problems to arise that could be traced to a failed initial
boot attempt following a motherboard change.

I know that in the past on your website
http://michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp. html#2 - which contains excellent
step-by-step instructions for undertaking a Repair install - you have
cautioned about making an initial boot following a motherboard change, even
referring to it as a potentially "fatal" error (although I no longer see
that reference any more). And I've seen similar comments from a number of
different sources.

I would appreciate your comments re this matter.
Anna

 

[Kerry Brown]

As we all know (well, at least many of us know!) that following a change
of motherboards there's a strong liklihood that a Repair install will be
necessary to re:establish a functional system. However, in a significant
number of cases, the system *will* boot following a motherboard change
without further ado, thus negating the need for a Repair install. The
reason(s) why this occurs in some cases and not others is not clear (at
least to me). But it does happen.

I have also done hundreds of motherboard changes. What I have found is the
chipset manufacturers usually include support for previous chipsets with
their drivers. If the two motherboards have chipsets from the same
manufacturer then the procedure is this. Before doing the swap if possible
install the latest chipset driver. Usually on first boot all the hardware
will be found. If the motherboard is dead then obviously this can't be done.
Depending on when the chipset driver was last updated the hardware may or
may not be found on first boot. A repair install may be needed or the system
may boot well enough that the new chipset driver can be installed and the
hardware will be found on the next boot. If the chipset manufacturers are
different then a repair install is almost always needed. Even if it finds
the hardware I have found that the system often comes back for more repairs
because of intermittant problems. When changing motherboards with different
chipset manufacturers I always do a repair install to avoid returns.

In my experience involving a rather substantial number of motherboard
changes - perhaps well over 100 - we *always* attempt an initial boot
following such a change. Obviously should that initial boot fail, we
subsequently pursue a Repair install. I cannot recall a single instance
whereby this initial boot, regardless of whether it succeeded or failed,
caused future problems to arise that could be traced to a failed initial
boot attempt following a motherboard change.

I know that in the past on your website
http://michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp. html#2 - which contains excellent
step-by-step instructions for undertaking a Repair install - you have
cautioned about making an initial boot following a motherboard change,
even referring to it as a potentially "fatal" error (although I no longer
see that reference any more). And I've seen similar comments from a number
of different sources.

I would appreciate your comments re this matter.

I would also like comments if anyone has experienced this. I have never had
this happen.

Kerry

 

[chrispsg]

I have never had to do a repair install after a mobo replacement. I have
replaced probably 50 this year..Not one that required the repair install..

But there is a first time for everything.

psg

 

[Michael Stevens]

In

I have never had to do a repair install after a mobo replacement. I
have replaced probably 50 this year..Not one that required the repair
install..
But there is a first time for everything.

psg

Thank you all for your very knowledgeable and appreciated feedback. I have
also seen many successful MB swaps without doing a repair install. But I
WILL NOT attempt one without a current backup image in case there is a
problem.
I have found that most people that do upgrades do not usually have viable
backups to their systems data and would not have the skills to recover the
data if they did get into a no boot situation from a botched MB swap.
I agree that motherboard swaps where the chipsets are in the same family are
usually no problem, but not always, and that is why I feel the extra time it
takes to do the repair install is the equivalent of not playing Russian
Roulette with your data.
I also have very good feedback from people that have encountered problems
and have been able to recover by following the recovery steps listed in my
repair install web site. But I would still recommend a repair install as the
first option after setting the bios on a new MB.
Thanks again for the very informed feedback.

--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Kerry Brown]

Thank you all for your very knowledgeable and appreciated feedback. I
have also seen many successful MB swaps without doing a repair install.
But I WILL NOT attempt one without a current backup image in case there is
a problem.
I have found that most people that do upgrades do not usually have viable
backups to their systems data and would not have the skills to recover the
data if they did get into a no boot situation from a botched MB swap.
I agree that motherboard swaps where the chipsets are in the same family
are usually no problem, but not always, and that is why I feel the extra
time it takes to do the repair install is the equivalent of not playing
Russian Roulette with your data.
I also have very good feedback from people that have encountered problems
and have been able to recover by following the recovery steps listed in my
repair install web site. But I would still recommend a repair install as
the first option after setting the bios on a new MB.
Thanks again for the very informed feedback.

Thanks for the reminder about backups. It is imperative that you have a
verified backup before attempting any upgrades. This is not mentioned
enough.

Kerry

 

[Guest]

hi!
Thanks for all your help. I just wondering why it happened to me. I started
yesterday back up all my files on the external storage via USB port which is
120GB and the machine that I need to be back up is 80GB I back up all what is
in my computer and it says during back up be finish after 21hrs. I went for
work then when I came back I found out that only the external Hard drive is
on and my monitor but the machine is totally off. I re started but no life!
change my power supply with a good one but nothing happened checked the
memory all are in working condition. I'm not sure something wrong with my
mother board? or CPU? the model of mother board is GA _K8ns Pro I looking for
the light on the motherboard but can't find one. And the worst thing is not
only this machine! Have one that am running Windows Update. I asked my son to
turn off the machine once finished installing the SP2. According to him it
was ok when he shot down the machine. But now this two machine same problem
totally died! Checked all the power socket, cord all are working. I check my
back up to other machine and its only 10GB was back up. Any Idea?
please.....Thanks for all your help and time with me..