WINXP Home and hardware Upgrade

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Guest

I run WINXP Home with sp2 and all latest updates. If I change my system
board, cpu and memory and keep the current hard drives and other hardware,
will I have to reload WINXP Home?
 
Depends.

More than likely no, the most you'll have to do is do a repair install.

However, I have sometimes found that a full reinstall is needed.

Matt Gibson - GSEC
 
Not reload per say, but a Repair install may be in order. XP has a
number of system level drivers for components on the motherboard.
When you change Motherboards, the system level drivers may not
be the same. Referred to as Chipsets, these are Northbridge and a
Southbridge chips that provide things like IDE/SATA support.
If you move from one vendor to another (Intel to VIA or vice-versa)
then a Repair is almost always required.
Even a Intel-to-Intel or VIA-to-VIA upgrade might have problems
since the drivers may or may not map correctly.
There are ways to avoid a Repair install by pre-loading a Generic
driver for the boot controller (IDE/SATA) but it's not a fool proof
process. It's usually the Mass Storage controller driver that prevents
a normal boot up after switching Motherboards & CPUs.
If you have imaging capability, I would take a System Partition image
before you start the change over. A Repair or "In-Place" install will
leave Applications, settings and User data in tact. You will loose any
Windows updates or Service Packs. If your original XP CD-ROM
is a pre-SP2 release, you might benefit by "Slipstreaming" SP2 into
it before running the Repair operation.
 
R. McCarty said:
Not reload per say, but a Repair install may be in order. XP has a
number of system level drivers for components on the motherboard.
When you change Motherboards, the system level drivers may not
be the same. Referred to as Chipsets, these are Northbridge and a
Southbridge chips that provide things like IDE/SATA support.
If you move from one vendor to another (Intel to VIA or vice-versa)
then a Repair is almost always required.
Even a Intel-to-Intel or VIA-to-VIA upgrade might have problems
since the drivers may or may not map correctly.
There are ways to avoid a Repair install by pre-loading a Generic
driver for the boot controller (IDE/SATA) but it's not a fool proof
process. It's usually the Mass Storage controller driver that prevents
a normal boot up after switching Motherboards & CPUs.
If you have imaging capability, I would take a System Partition image
before you start the change over. A Repair or "In-Place" install will
leave Applications, settings and User data in tact. You will loose any
Windows updates or Service Packs. If your original XP CD-ROM
is a pre-SP2 release, you might benefit by "Slipstreaming" SP2 into
it before running the Repair operation.
Click to expand...
 
Two approaches, an automated tool that does the majority of the work
or you can step through the process manually.
See the following, for help with doing it yourself:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm
Google for Slipstream SP2, or perhaps Carey will post the tool he
recommends here, I can't at the moment remember the name of it.
 
t1021ru said:
I run WINXP Home with sp2 and all latest updates. If I change my system
board, cpu and memory and keep the current hard drives and other hardware,
will I have to reload WINXP Home?
Click to expand...


Normally, and assuming a retail license (many OEM installations
and licenses are 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

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