PCA Forums

Hello,

I have a Boistar M7NCD motherboard with a AMD Athlon 2100+. I am building a new system with a Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939 and AMD Athlon 64 3000+. I want to move my old hard drive to the new system which has my Windows XP Pro and programs. 1. I have been told to remove the old nVidia chipset drivers and just shut the system down, rather than rebooting. Then build the system and boot it up. 2. I was also told to just boot off the Windows XP CD and do a repair of the operating system, after the new system is built. If anyone could lend me any advise or if they have done this before I would appreciate any help. I have never tried to install a hard drive onto a new motherbaord before with an existing Windows XP operating system. I am wondering if option 1, 2, or another way is the correct way of doing this.

Thank you,

Peter.

Either way will work, but option 2 will give you the best results.

eGo

I agree I recently did almost the same type of upgrade and did a repair installation and it worked flawlessly

I will try that option. Just out of curiousity I found this thread on a webpage and wanted to see what you thought about it? Someone mentioned this alternative without doing a repair.

While the old motherboard was still usable, I used the following procedure

- I changed the IDE+AGP controller driver to the Windows default driver (Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller and PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge respectivelly)

- Uninstalled the VGA Card drivers

- Changed the motherboard

- Reassembled the pc again with all the cards and cables that were previously attached

- At this phase, I could boot Windows without any blue screen and also without making a installation repair!

- Next step: install the new chipset drivers and VGA drivers

Sure, that will work, but I would imagine it would take you just about the same amount of time as a repair install. Either way you go you should be fine.

eGo

I have it built and finished. AMD Athlon 3000+, Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939 board, nVidia GeForce 5500 256MB card, 1.5 Gigs of PC3200 Ram, WinXP Pro. Not the best but not bad. I have just one question, I am using the retail heatsink and fan with Artic Silver 5 paste. The CPU is running at 39 degrees c. Is this normal or should I use a CPU cooler like Vantec? Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Peter

39 C is fine. Be aware that Option 1 may SEEM to work but often you may have problems down the road or performance issues because traces of the old mobo drivers are left behind or certain mobo drivers don't install properly (like ACPI for instance which was never designed to be uninstalled and replaced).

My rule is that it's the safest thing is to do a repair install. The only exception is if you're staying with the same mobo chipset (going from one nForce4 mobo to another nForce4 for instance).

Be aware if you do a repair install you'll have to install all the latest security updates again - Windows gets reset back to the version on the install CD.

I will probably do a reinstall in a little while. I am kind of tired with getting this built. Thanks for your help.

FP has the plan man..

I went from mobo.. to mobo.. to mobo... and NEVER reinstalled.. NEVER did repair install.. NOTHING.. and ppl looked at me funny.. well.. they where all Nforce 4 boards.. Gigabyte to a Abit to a MSI.. also.. well.. time was an issues.. so when I was able to do it.. I cleared important stuff off the C:.. and formated. reinstalled.. updated.. and it's running great..

good luck.. and welcome to PCA