replacing moherboards

[madcatmk3]

I'm swiching my 925xe chipset with a intel Nforce what do I have to do software wise so I can do that(not compatability but right before I change it)?

[cadaveca]

uninstall ALL drivers. everything. still no guanantees it will work right tho. always best to format.

[kellamne]

BACK UP BACK UP BACK UP!!!

If you're using xp - you may (or may not) need to buy a new copy if your previous one was OEM, other than that I think general advice will be a clean re-install after you've backed up all you essential data.

Download and burn to CD all necessary drivers e.g. the XG Nvidia drivers from AOAfiles first so you have them imediately.

(Cad got there first then ).

[cloasters]

When Intel's version of the Nforce 4 mainboard first hit the streets, the cogniscenti were totally unimpressed. Is the latest incarnation worthy of consideration?

[Repo Man]

When swapping out motherboards it's common practice to reinstall the OS (windows), because of a chipset incompatibility, this is unnecessary. There is a time and place for OS reinstalls, but if your OS is running like a champ, and your just upgrading to a new mobo/cpu/ram, or just a new mobo you have other options.

There are two methods available, the first involves running a repair on the OS, the other uses a program called Sysprep. I strongly recommend the sysprep method over the repair method because it makes less changes to the OS and gets the job done. In fact, this tool is meant specifically for the job.

There are down sides to the repair method commonly used, other than the fact it takes 10x as long. Here are the potential problems to the repair method (also called an in-place upgrade).
Loss of program settings.
Data loss.
And you must reinstall ALL windows updates and service packs, since the files copied from the CD are not patched.


Sysprep
First let me describe what Sysprep is, and why it's useful to us. Sysprep is a tool used in creating HDD images for mass deployment, where the hardware can vary from machine to machine. The general idea is, you setup a PC, install all the software you want, make all the setting changes to the OS and applications. Then run Sysprep, which will remove all hardware IDs from the OS. At this point, you would want to create an image of the machine, but we are not creating images for mass deployment. I am just outlining what the tool does, we will be using it differently.

The next time the PC boots it will run a Mini-Setup Wizard and re-detect your hardware just like the first time Windows was installed. You can setup the image to have drivers ready for your different hardware, but that ins't necessary for what we are doing. We are only deploying this to a single PC, yours, and you can download the drivers by hand yourself.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=772307

[madcatmk3]

well I'm putting in windows media center so there will be a new OS but I'm thinking of borring my frinds external 80 and transfering eferything to it.