Swapping a mother board?

[RecoilS14]

I bought myself a new motherboard, CPU, etc. Yesterday and today I plan on putting it all together. I have never done this so I'm curious about one thing and I'm hoping some of you computer gurus can help.

I'm going to use my existing HDD and I really don't want to format it. Will everything be plug n play or will I have to load up the new drivers before I dismantle my current system? I'm not sure what else I have to do, so if anyone could lend some guidance or advice that would be great!

[schocker]

Plug and play. Once you have booted it up for the first time though, install the new drivers off the motherboard disc, likely items like usb/ethernet drivers and whatever else you want to install.

[firebane]

Originally posted by RecoilS14
I bought myself a new motherboard, CPU, etc. Yesterday and today I plan on putting it all together. I have never done this so I'm curious about one thing and I'm hoping some of you computer gurus can help.

I'm going to use my existing HDD and I really don't want to format it. Will everything be plug n play or will I have to load up the new drivers before I dismantle my current system? I'm not sure what else I have to do, so if anyone could lend some guidance or advice that would be great!

If you are using Windows 7 it will be a breeze. Windows XP or Vista can be a bit of a nuisance with this.

Best scenario try it and see what happens.

[RecoilS14]

Nm, I googled it while on the John at work.

[eblend]

Also, I would not recommend loading the drivers off the CD but rather get the latest from the manufacture's website. Windows 7 should work, others may or may not, sometimes the ide/sata raid controller can cause issues and the machine will just cycle boot, but most of the time should be fine

[RecoilS14]

Opened a can of worms with this one. I got everything swapped over and I booted up. Can't load windows, recovery is on the partition and I have no vista disk. Hoping my work has one.

Anyone have any suggestions providing I can't get a disk today?

[Boat]

Some bad advice on here. Depending on your hardware it can be a quick switchover, What mobo do you have and what did you switch to? Whenever you switch mobo/proc I also find that you will have to reactivate windows (this is usually through a click of a button, just dont do it too much).

In the meatime, you could switch back to your old hardware and download a vista .iso and burn it to a disc.

[SmAcKpOo]

If the new and old motherboard have similar chipset families and storage controllers then a direct swap will be a breeze.

If the motherboards are different then you WILL need to do a format and reinstallation of the OS. However, you can try a repair of Windows or delete and uninstall all previous drivers before you do the swap.

It is not recommended to use a previous OS install on new hardware.