Hi,

I currently have a celeron processor with sdram memory. My system has two IDE harddrive with winxp and win2k as dual boot. One dvdrom drive and one cdrw drive. I am thinking of upgrading my motherboard with Biostar K8M800 Micro Via Socket AM2 MicroATX Motherboard which has two ide connectors and the processor with AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ and with 2 gb of ram. Now if i use my harddrives will i have to wipe off the harddrive and reinstall the OS or can I just take it off the old system and install it in the new MB without reinstalling the OS.

You will have to reinstall because Windows sets itself up with all the existing hardware during the install. And since a motherboard is actually seen as several hardware devices, swapping motherboards is too great a change.

This means you must have the original Windows installation disk, and it must be the retail version and not an OEM version that came with your old computer or motherboard.

_________________
Bill, AFE7Ret
Freedom is NOT Free!

Reinstall or repair install? Isn't the latter worth a try?

Ike is absolutely correct - a repair is a viable option.

Sorry KK, I let my personal opinion cloud my response. As I said above, a new (and different) motherboard is actually several pieces of new (and different) hardware; the chipset, hard drive controllers, network interface, sound, and with this new board, video too.

When I "upgrade" to a new, more advanced, motherboard, I prefer to start fresh, as this ensures no conflict with old drivers.

So my way ensures your disk and the Registry are not cluttered with old, useless data. However, my way also destroys all your old data, but you have that backed up already, right?

And again, all of this is moot if you don't have an original, full version Windows install disk.

Thanks for the nudge, Ike.

_________________
Bill, AFE7Ret
Freedom is NOT Free!

'tis a good point though Bill. Over time a lot of excess baggage creeps in. Sometimes it's best to bite the bullet and start fresh. Personally I find that hard to start fresh unless I'm forced to do so e.g. the drive crashes in some way and I neglected to keep a recent-enough restore point. It's like giving up that comfortable reclining chair with all it's lumps and bumps that I've figured out how to live with. I just know there'd be all kinds of forgotten tweaks that took days to sort when last encountered.