What happens if....

Runningkid

Runningkid

Runningkid

Associate
Joined
1 Dec 2005
Posts
523
my mobo jsut decides to break... and i got loads of important stuff on my HDD. wen i get a new mobo, but mite be a different mobo coz i dont trust foxconn anymore, will it still be able to boot back into windows for me to backup the stuff? or will i ahve to get a second hdd and use my current one as slave?

also can sata drives be set as slaves? coz unlike ide its 1 hdd per channel...

thanks RK
 
It should boot into window, won't like it very much but should be ok.
You will want to reformat after you have recovered your data, as all of the system drivers will be a mess.
 
No SATA drives are always Master in that as you say there is only one drive although without a second drive being present the designation is somewhat useless. You need a separate channel for each SATA drive.

It probably will boot into Windows but you might need a re-activation code from Microsoft as changing a motherboard is one of the major changes that is meant to trigger the need for re-activation. This feature isn't present in Windows XP Pro as far as I am aware and for all I know it has been removed from Home as well because I haven't heard anything about it for a while.
 
senorstealth said:
It should boot into window, won't like it very much but should be ok.
You will want to reformat after you have recovered your data, as all of the system drivers will be a mess.
Click to expand...
Hit-or-miss really especially if changing makers = new chipset/s, etc end up getting BSODs. What you need is to get a back-up program like Acronis True Image which can create a bootable CD. That way, using the program simply backup your Windows partition onto a another partition/disk then simply re-install :D
 
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Try whacking it in a mates PC and getting the info off then.
Or
When you get your new mobo and it doesnt boot, try doing a repair install on the windows partition.
Won't be 100% stable thought due to old drivers and the like, needs a format.

MC_Bob
 
semi-pro waster said:
It probably will boot into Windows but you might need a re-activation code from Microsoft as changing a motherboard is one of the major changes that is meant to trigger the need for re-activation. This feature isn't present in Windows XP Pro as far as I am aware and for all I know it has been removed from Home as well because I haven't heard anything about it for a while.
Click to expand...

XP pro does have the feature, i changed motherboards, processor a couple of weeks ago and it triggered re-activation.

EDIT: Needed me to phone Microsoft to re-activate as well.

hp7909 said:
Hit-or-miss really especially if changing makers = chipset/s, etc end up getting BSODs. What you need is to get a back-up program like Acronis True Image which can create a bootable CD. That way, using the program simply backup your Windows partition onto a another partition/disk then simply re-install
Click to expand...

As above i changed boards from an nforce2 to nforce4, processor + graphics at the same time, Windows booted fine
 
Windows should boot ok. It'll detect the new chipset and automatically install default XP drivers.
It may need one or two reboots before it boots normally, but it's best to format and do a clean install as suggested above.
 
personally I would get a new hdd and use that as primary andthe old disk as D or E ( depending on what your DVD drive is) that way you dont risk having probelms at all with the old data and you get a fresh install on a new drive

Witht eh cost of even a moderate mobo the cost of a cheap hdd ontop isnt that much to bare (imo of course)
 
thanks for thereply

i got a few IDE hard disc lying around at home, if i install windows onto one of those, then can i then access my SATA drive thru windows and back it up that way?

or if i buy a new sata drive (which i was plnning to go raid anyways) and plug that in as my boot up drive and install windows on that. will this work??
 
SATA isnt some mysterious technological creation from the distant future. Just set which drive you want as boot and the other one will automatically be considered "slave" although such a distinction shouldn't really be made.

If you use an IDE HDD then the IDE HDD will automatically take priority over SATA. So either way you dont really need to do much to get your data back.

SiriusB
 
Yes, as long as you install Windows onto the spare disk and set the boot order correctly in bios you should be able to access your SATA hard drive as a secondary disk(D:, E: or whatever) no problem :)
 
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