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[Arclight]

Kinda. :hmmm:

Is it possible to swap out motherboards without reïnstalling Windows? :06:

Was thinking I'd just uninstall all devices, swap out the board and pray Win boots, finds new devices and let's me install proper drivers without crashing. :hmm2:

[JSLTIGER]

Generally no. If two or more devices change, you need to reinstall Windows. Since most boards are radically different, it's unlikely to work.

[Arclight]

Reinstall it is. Another question: is it possible to rebuild a RAID array without losing data?

Currently have 2 drives in RAID0, controlled by hardware on the board (controller in the Northbridge iirc). Hoping I can rebuild it on the new one without losing everything on it. :hmmm:

Going from P35/ICH9R to P45/ICH10R btw.

[Reece]

I have done it before but yes uninstall as many devices as you can, also you will have to have the same CPU type (AMD/Intel) also and even more importantly is the chipset, must be the same, and there are many types as you probably know.:yep:

[Arclight]

Nothing changes but the board; it's an upgrade to a newer chipset. Finally got an PCI-E 2.0 slot for my card, and the new chipset should offer a slight performance boost and lower heat and power consumption.

Think I'll just do the reïnstall, bit worried about the RAID though. :-?


Just one of those little geek upgrades. Current board then goes to a mate who's still using old PC. Same for my previous CPU and RAM (upgraded those while ago), should get him started on a decent system. :)

[SteamWake]

The answer is maybe... (Win XP)

I recently did just that replace the mobo and 'recoverd' the windows installation and all data on the fixed disks.

See this thread http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=171134

The key is to have a windows CD boot from that and do a recovery...

There is a precise set of steps to take I will try to find the article and link it here.

BTW you will have to get all the freakin service packs re-installed which takes hours.

I would have simply reformatted but dident want to loose nearly a terrabyte of data.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

[Arclight]

Win7 mate, reïnstall takes me at most 30 mins. Getting it up to date another 15, if Win7 doesn't get latest files during install (think it does). ;)

Installing drivers, configure Win to my taste and getting my software up and running again, that takes a whole day though.

Everything critical is on other drives/partitions, the random crap in My Documents and such is already backed up. Just 1 neat 64GB partition, all for the OS and software.


Right, think I'll just swap 'm out now. That board is just begging to be put into service. :DL

[SteamWake]

Win7 mate, reïnstall takes me at most 30 mins. Getting it up to date another 15, if Win7 doesn't get latest files during install (think it does). ;)

Installing drivers, configure Win to my taste and getting my software up and running again, that takes a whole day though.

Everything critical is on other drives/partitions, the random crap in My Documents and such is already backed up. Just 1 neat 64GB partition, all for the OS and software.


Right, think I'll just swap 'm out now. That board is just begging to be put into service. :DL

Well it can be done with win7 as well...

Just google "New motherboard old hard drive" :rock:

[Arclight]

:haha:

So, new board installed and running. First surprise: I look in BIOS and find it lists a RAID disk. Check the RAID bios and sure enough, my array is fine and functioning. Second surprise: it boots right into Windows without any complaints and proceeds to install some new devices. :har:

Talk about quick and painless... Think I'll still re-format though, just to make sure I don't run into any conflicts down the road.

[SteamWake]

:haha:

So, new board installed and running. First surprise: I look in BIOS and find it lists a RAID disk. Check the RAID bios and sure enough, my array is fine and functioning. Second surprise: it boots right into Windows without any complaints and proceeds to install some new devices. :har:

Talk about quick and painless... Think I'll still re-format though, just to make sure I don't run into any conflicts down the road.

Probably wise who knows what kind of disastor waiting to happen is lurking in the registry ;)

BTW I have had no issues at all with my machine just doing a recovery. I guess raid arrays and win7 are a tad more forgiving.

[Arclight]

I guess so, certainly didn't expect it to simply detect the array like that. But then, it's a small step from ICH9R to ICH10R.


Of course, Windows now refuses to activate because it thinks it's a different machine. :shifty: