New motherboard, not reinstalling windows

no_1_dave

no_1_dave

no_1_dave

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I have a new board arriving tomo as I'm fed up with Gigabyte.
I have my PC all working as I want it to & dont want to or have the time to reinstall windows. Everytime I have ever upgraded in the past I have always done everything but this time I wont be.

So, any tips to make sure everything goes well? Anything I should be aware of? Are there any programs that can remove all my motherboard drivers in safe mode so I can just install new ones? Shall I just pop new board in, boot up & install drivers as normal? Any help making things go smoothly would be much appreciated :)

Running vista 64 by the way
 
Do repair installations only overwrite windows files?
If I just put it in, boot up, then insert the driver disk what's likely to happen? Some people must have done it without re-installing before?
 
btw, i have also exactly the same setup as you..

what's wrong with the GB?

have you set your ram to +0.4v? without this my ocz was unstable
 
If you want to change mobo and not re-install windows (me P35 -> P45 -> X58 )

With original mobo , uninstall any drivers for that mobo eg chipset drivers ,lan drivers etc

Shutdown PC , upgrade mobo and then boot up system and install all the
drivers for you new mobo.

If you have problems booting it , trying doing it in safe mode
 
wombraider said:
If you want to change mobo and not re-install windows (me P35 -> P45 -> X58 )

With original mobo , uninstall any drivers for that mobo eg chipset drivers ,lan drivers etc

Shutdown PC , upgrade mobo and then boot up system and install all the
drivers for you new mobo.

If you have problems booting it , trying doing it in safe mode
Click to expand...

flying over my comments from before..

this is generally safe to do :), especially when going intel>intel or nvidia>nvidia
 
wombraider said:
If you want to change mobo and not re-install windows (me P35 -> P45 -> X58 )

With original mobo , uninstall any drivers for that mobo eg chipset drivers ,lan drivers etc

Shutdown PC , upgrade mobo and then boot up system and install all the
drivers for you new mobo.

If you have problems booting it , trying doing it in safe mode
Click to expand...

Did'nt work for me a couple of weeks ago with XP Home. I went from X38-X48 too. I uninstalled all drivers, ran driver sweeper etc, swapped boards, booted up and was rewarded with a bsod on getting to the desktop. Safemode did'nt even get to the desktop. Ended up doing a fresh install. You would think that X48 being basically the same chipset as X38 that there would be no problems. Funnily enough, Vista 64 detected the new board and installed all the drivers itself.

Before anybody say's it was a pointless upgrade it was'nt a upgrade. My Asus P5E was on the way out and i got this DFI for a fantastic price.
 
As an aside, is this retial or OEM Vista, because if is OEM, you do realise you will invalidate your licence even if Microsoft activate it (I don't care, but if Burnsy catches you, he won't be happy :p :D)?
 
yantorsen said:
I also have the same mother board, what do you find wrong with it?
Click to expand...

Doesnt work with 4 ram sticks
Doesnt like to go up to 400Mhz
Annying bios options

New Abit board (this week only) should be better & I can sell my Gigabyte for over £50 at auction so no real loss :)
 
wombraider said:
^ What does that mean ?
Click to expand...

if you try to boot a windows install done on a nvidia based board on a intel based board you'll prolly get a BSOD and vice versa

same if going between widely different chipsets...

vista doesn't seem quite so fussy, but XP usually dies...

It's all down to the resources / drivers used by hard disk controller, if you have a old SATA PCI / RAID card kicking about, you can ALWAYS move a system from one motherboard to another with no problem at all. (I do this several times a week at work)

Windows repair can somtimes fix the BSOD by redetecting the hard disk controllers..


End of day though you'll fooling yourself by having shiny new hardware and not a shiny new install of windows, windows and related apps are so fast to install these days just start from scratch :), it's a sure fire way to get a reliable and fast system.
 
Last edited:
Flukester said:
End of day though you'll fooling yourself by having shiny new hardware and not a shiny new install of windows, windows and related apps are so fast to install these days just start from scratch :), it's a sure fire way to get a reliable and fast system.
Click to expand...

I know, I might just re-install.
Its just it would mean backing up my save games, program settings, cookies etc. It's just so much work which I used to enjoy more then I do now. I do like having a nice new install though!
 
I've read that Vista does a much better job in situations like this so worth a go, never tried it myself with Vista but with XP it was always a waste of a few hours before deciding to do a repair or reinstall.
 
Is there a program out that's made for when you need to re-install windows. One which:
You select the games, it backs up the saves
You specify the programs, it gathers them including settings & puts them all into 1 install package
Saves all your settings, everything.

If the above program doesnt exist someone needs to make one, they'd make a lot of money!
 
There is tool by Microsoft that does something similar, read about it a few months ago but can't remember any more then that, will have a lookie around and post back if I can find it.
 
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