Upgrading motherboard

[Teabag]

I want to upgrade my motherboard (but keep my processor). Will I have problems using my existing hard drive (windows xp home, sp2) as I don't want to loose all the stuff I've got over the past 3 years. Thanks in advance, Teabag

[bobjim1705]

You shouldn't have any problems with the hard drive, as long as it's connected correctly, and the motherboard has the right connectors.

[Thunderchild]

ahem sorry to dapen ur ilusions.

1. with a three year old processor the only motherboard u can ugrade to is one that is not less than 2 yrs old already this is because motherbards r processor specific.

2. u cannot use the same windows instalation on another motherboard as likely it will be a different make and certainly have different make and model chips on it therefor there will be issue on everything strting from the ide controller that connects the hard disks to any onboard feature like onboard audio that all come with now it will just not work. the only way to use a preinstalled HDD is to install it on something like the 10 yr old pentium one board i have in the garage because in those days there were none or little onboard periferys and there we so basic that there were automatically upgraded when i put the disk on another pc.

u will best just upgrade to a new pc and connect the old hard disk to it as a secondary disk and copy the files u want

[bobjim1705]

Motherboards AREN'T processor specific, though some are.
Mostly, they are socket and brand specific (e.g socket 939, AMD processor.)

It's still quite likely you could find a motherboard that will suit your needs, but you may be limited to a certain range.
Also, you CAN use the same windows installation on another motherboard - although it's not exactly straight forward. In safe mode, you can go about removing/replacing drivers as necessary.

[fo3nix]

perhaps an optimal method is to also buy a new hard drive (or borrow a friend's external one if thats easier), and copy all your data from your old hard drive onto this. then format it, and when you've installed your new motherboard, install XP onto it again as a clean start. then its just simply a case of copying all your work over again...

[stevie21]

If you have the hard drive in one PC with XP already installed and then put this hard drive into a new PC (or, in your case, onto a new motherboard in the same PC) then I'd expect problems if the hard drive is set as the primary drive and Windows boots from it.

 

As Windows boots, it'll be looking for bits of the old motherboard that aren't there any more. 

If you can, either backup the data that you need onto CD/DVD or install this HD as slave and then copy what you need over.  Sadly any software will need reinstalling afresh on the new HD.

As mentioned, the only other way around this is to spend time footering about with the drivers manually.  That's not a lot of fun.

[joefloggs]

Hi Teabag. My personal opinion is that if your going to buy a new motherboard, you might as well buy a new processor. Aria (http://www.aria.co.uk) are pretty good for this, and you can get a decent speeded processor and motherboard for �100. I would speak to somone at customer services if you are unsure.

As for your hardware, XP will automatically adjust certain things so that your windows will operate as normal. However, it may ask you to activate it again so make sure you have your activation key at hand.

As long as you keep your hard drive safe the data shouldn't be lost. An alternative is to go buy a new hard drive (80gb = �30 now) and reinstall a fresh copy of XP on it whilst making your old Hard drive into a secondary one (make sure the jumpers on the back of the hard drive are set to Secondary).

This way you can have a clean install of windows with your data all there. However, certain things like any custamizations will be lost and on the outset your email/bookmarks etc will be missing. However, they're not, they should need to be found - but thats too long winded to put on here

[mattfox]

Another option to use your second drive is in conjunction with one of these: http://www.viewcon.biz/code/hard-drive-caddy-p-54.html

I bought this one a few days ago and it is excellent!! Basically, you put your second drive into the caddy and it becomes an external drive, and you can connect it to any PC with a USB port.

Handy for keeping docs completely separate from your computer and accessible from any comp!!