Stupid ?- Can I swap out my M/B w/o reformatting my HD?

[wartrace]

I am upgrading to a better M/B. Can I just plug in the old hard drive and go on? I have always reformatted when upgrading motherboards & chips. This time it will just be a motherboard & memory.

I know its a stupid question but consider who its coming from! I am just wondering if I should continue updating Vista while I await the arrival of the board or if I should go look at some spy ware infested porn sites just for laughs because I will have to start over again soon?

 

[Respital]

I am upgrading to a better M/B. Can I just plug in the old hard drive and go on? I have always reformatted when upgrading motherboards & chips. This time it will just be a motherboard & memory.

I know its a stupid question but consider who its coming from! I am just wondering if I should continue updating Vista while I await the arrival of the board or if I should go look at some spy ware infested porn sites just for laughs because I will have to start over again soon?

You have to reformat because of the difference chip set.

I'd suggest not going to spyware infested pron sites as you may not be able to boot. Yes spyware can be that bad.

 

[StrangleHold]

I am upgrading to a better M/B. Can I just plug in the old hard drive and go on? I have always reformatted when upgrading motherboards & chips. This time it will just be a motherboard & memory.

I know its a stupid question but consider who its coming from! I am just wondering if I should continue updating Vista while I await the arrival of the board or if I should go look at some spy ware infested porn sites just for laughs because I will have to start over again soon?

It can be done. But not always successful. If the boards have different chipsets/sound/Lan and so on, when you boot windows it tries to load the drivers for the old board. Blue Screen.

Before you change boards out uninstall (all your drivers). Change your boards out. When you boot the first time try to boot into safe mode, (if it loads) it will install windows generic drivers. Shut down, boot normal and install all your new drivers. But even if it works it still better to do a fresh install and you will have to probable reactive windows.

 

[wartrace]

It can be done. But not always successful. If the boards have different chipsets/sound/Lan and so on, when you boot windows it tries to load the drivers for the old board. Blue Screen.

Before you change boards out uninstall (all your drivers). Change your boards out. When you boot the first time try to boot into safe mode, (if it loads) it will install windows generic drivers. Shut down, boot normal and install all your new drivers. But even if it works it still better to do a fresh install and you will have to probable reactive windows.

What have I got to lose? I will give your idea a try, if it doesn't work I can always reformat and start fresh. Thanks for your advice. I do have a full version of windows Vista, not the OEM version.