PC Hardware → Mobo/Processor Switch Question!

I bought a new mobo/processor and I'm about to switch it with my old mobo and old processor that I'm currently on right now. I currently have 1.1 GHZ AMD Athlon Processor with a old compaq mobo replacing it with a 1.8 AMD Opteron 288 Processor with a ASUS motherboard.

Will I have to reformat hard-drive?

Edit: Please replay asap! I want this to get running and going.

There is no clear answer.

A lot depends on the chipsets of the old and new motherboards; those with the same (SiS, VIA, etc.) tend to migrate easier, though there are no absolutes.

It also depends on the os. XP, when run in recovery mode (off the CD) after this type of upgrade usually behaves pretty well.

The most reliable thing to do is to back up stuff, and reinstall. But it may be overkill.

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There is no clear answer.

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Oh yes there is. With a old Compaq set up, the answer is 100% without any question. Save your data, and get ready.

Yes you do. Two completely different chipsets with completely different features and technology.

Should I buy a new hard-drive and then just use the hard-drive I'm using right now as an external (2nd-Hardrive) soo I could keep files?

said by beefcake122:

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quote:

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There is no clear answer.

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Oh yes there is. With a old Compaq set up, the answer is 100% without any question. Save your data, and get ready.

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The answer isn't all that clear.
The computer I'm on right now used to have a Compaq MB and an Athlon 1.33. It now has a MSI K7N2G-ILSR and a XP2400+ and I didn't need to reformat. I'm running XP Home.

What I did was to go into the Device Manager and uninstall all the Motherboard specific Drivers, then I shut it down and replaced the motherboard and processor. When I restarted for the first time, I booted from the CD and did a repair install. After completing the repair install, I put in the MB driver CD and installed the correct drivers.

For me this was much easier than reinstalling 300+ programs and redoing all my settings.

Thanks for that great reply, but what i mentioned about the hard-drive, the above post... will that work?

If I have read it correctly then yes, yes you can do that.

You still are going to want to format the old one and remove all the old OS crap. If you get a new hard drive, install windows on it, then transfer all your data to the new drive and reformat the old drive to clean it up. Then put your data on whatever drive you want.
Word of caution before you do the upgrade, check to see if you enabled encryption with your user name. If you did you will not be able to access anything in your my documents folder, or desktop. If you don't know for sure, just move all the files in those directories into a new folder directly on c:\. It was very frustrating for my friend when he lost everything because he could no longer access the stuff in those folders.

Also if your throwing everything into a compaq case, the new motherboard might not fit and the power supply could lack connectors you may need.

What about all the installed programs... would they automaticly install them selves when I transfer all the programs?

In simple terms, no.

said by Lord Pancake1:

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In simple terms, no.

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bleh!

Oh well hope everything else goes well.
Thanks for the replies.