Format Needed When Installing New Motherboard?

Feyrhel · Post by **Feyrhel** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 6:50 am

Quick question, I am currently using an A8V Deluxe and am going to install an A8N SLI Premium, do I need to format the windows drive?

If I don't perform a clean install of winXP upon new motherboard installation will it be safe, if not, what problems can I expect?

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 7:27 am

I´ve never had any probs when swithing mobos and keeping the hd, i have just uninstalled the old mobo drivers before installing the new mobo and then install the drivers for thew new one.

Slaugh · Post by **Slaugh** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 12:31 am

If the chipset on the new motherboard is slightly the same, Windows should detect it without any problem... Since you go from a VIA chipset to a nVidia chipset, things could be different. Sometimes, you end up with a BSOD at startup when you change a motherboard for a totally different one. In this case, you don't have to reformat. You need to launch the Windows XP setup and choose repair (but not on the first screen, this one is used to access the recovery console). When the repair is completed, uninstall all useless drivers before installing the new ones, and make sure you reinstall all the critical security hotfixes that were previously installed.

Erssa · Post by **Erssa** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:09 am

I will be switching my mobo soon aswell. Let us know how it ends up with you...

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 6:11 am

i tried it once and it didnt work well. i got alot of blue screens and lock ups and error's. i ended up having to reinstall anyhow just to get it to work properly.

me personally, im a nazi when it comes to stability. so imo its just not worth it. it only takes a few hours to re-install, and when your done you have a nice clean copy with a fresh registry thats not all gunked up from a few years of use, and you know you have recent backups of everything important.

Locklear · Post by **Locklear** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 6:16 am

uninstall motherboard drivers before you try that, and you have a fighting chance of getting the machine up after changing platform.

Feyrhel · Post by **Feyrhel** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 6:39 am

Hmmm, well being one for stability I might just go ahead and spend a morning formatting the windows drive. Having to search for each and every driver linked with the A8V Deluxe everytime a critical error comes up would get pretty annoying in the long run.

Thanks for the replies, everyone!