if I add a new mobo and cpu do i have to format my current HD?

[silkman]

I'm planning on upgrading my mobo and cpu. But I want to use my current HD. The question is. Once I add the mobo and cpu will I need to format my HD inorder for it to work again? Or can i just plug it in and set to go?

[Richard_Cranium72]

The safest thing is to start fresh.

If the BIOS is the same, it'll work.

It may work if it's not, but.....

DrVette

[Eli]

Sometimes it works great, other times it does not. Back up all of your data first, remove everything in your device manager before you replace the motherboard, perform the swap, then re-install Windows (I assume) overtop of itself. This process has always worked for me.

[Brangwen]

It will run with a new mobo and cpu, "probably." Given that the Bios software that accompanies the new motherboard may be different (different drivers for different components, features, and/or chipset), I personally would save the data from the HD, clean the HD and start fresh. Can't hurt and you may avoid an unforeseen problem.

Good luck!

Brangwen http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

[RenaissanceMan]

windows will have a fit but if you are familiar with any registry editing the do the following.......delete this registry key,
The exact key to delete is [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum], so when you load up
REGEDIT, click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, right-click on Enum
and select delete. Thats all there is to it.
then shut your system down and do your upgrade, then on restart the new key will be processed in the registry. please use caution if you don't know what this is about then don't do it.
good luck

[silkman]

I have at lease 12gig of data I need to back up. But the problem is I don't have a cd burner and stuff. So would the registry trick work??

[superraton01]

I have swapped out over 20 hard drives.
I never have had to backup or reformat.
Any new drive (ide) should be picked up on
autodetect.

[Richard_Cranium72]

With 12g of Data needing back up.

Whew! Someone ? Help this Man.

My only suggestion is grab another HD and do a drag and drop.

You can copy all files by this method except the win386.swp file as it is in action while the machine is running.

That's been my experience anyway.

A 15gb can be got for about a C note today.

DrVette

[RalphArch]

actually you can get a 20 gig hd for $80. I would go this route and use the hd manufacture's software to image my current drive; set bios to autodetect drives for a while, set as slave to the first drive. The unribbon the first drive; change the jumpers and verify the new drive starts as master exactly as the the old drive. At this point I would start in safe mode and remove any control panel system devices that were related to current motherboard. I would also make sure I had a copy of win98 directory on the new hard drive so I could point to it on start up when perhaps the cd didn't work. Shutdown after removing in safe mode and then replace mb/cpu. This way you have a safe situation to try the upgrade from - you have a complete hard drive to go back to with the old mb if it doesn't work. I've never had to reload windows or anything and this has worked for me without a hassle.

plus this gives you a relatively cheap backup device. If you already have an alternate backup for those 12 gigs, or critical parts of the 12 gigs, then just do the backup and try above procedure anyway. If it doesn't work then you could always just reformat the hd and load windows and all your programs/drivers fresh; and then restore your backed up data.

[shadow]

I did a swap recently and it would not work at all. Kept getting some sort of error so I deleted the windows folder in DOS, used parition magic from a floppy(in DOS) squeezed what was left on the old system...files, etc. into a resized partition and changed it from active primary to logical. I made a new active partition at the front of the disc with any space leftover and installed windows into that new active partition. I had to reinstall apps but my files are all there on the old partition, which is now now my storage partition. I'm glad I went that way, the old system was Win95b, I made the new one Win98SE.

[Eli]

Shadow, did you re-install W9x overtop of itself immediately after the swap? That hasn't failed me yet.