Will Hardware Upgrade Damage Windows XP?

[C_Guy]

Hey everyone!

I am planning a major hardware upgarde including new
motherboard, processor, RAM, video and sound card. I
already have Wiondows XP Pro installed.

Can I simply plug my existing hard drive with Widnows XP
in the new system or do I have to completely re-install
Windows XP after the upgrade?

Thank you for your help!

-C_Guy

[Don Burnette]

C_Guy wrote:
> Hey everyone!
>
> I am planning a major hardware upgarde including new
> motherboard, processor, RAM, video and sound card. I
> already have Wiondows XP Pro installed.
>
> Can I simply plug my existing hard drive with Widnows XP
> in the new system or do I have to completely re-install
> Windows XP after the upgrade?
>
> Thank you for your help!
>
> -C_Guy

Since you are changing motherboard, you will most likely need to do a repair
install of XP at the very least.
I did this fairly recently, and what I did was after installing the new mb,
upon it's first boot I immediately went in to the bios, before letting XP
load, and set it to boot from the cd rom. I inserted the XP cd, then booted
from it. Choose new install, then at the second screen selected my existing
install and chose the repair function.
This basically is an in place reinstall, and sets everything to the new
hardware. It should be non destructive to your data, but as with any major
hardware upgrade I would recommend backing up your important data files to
be safe in case something does wrong.

Good luck with your new hardware,

Don Burnette

[Ron Martell]

"C_Guy" > wrote:

>Hey everyone!
>
>I am planning a major hardware upgarde including new
>motherboard, processor, RAM, video and sound card. I
>already have Wiondows XP Pro installed.
>
>Can I simply plug my existing hard drive with Widnows XP
>in the new system or do I have to completely re-install
>Windows XP after the upgrade?
>
>Thank you for your help!
>
>-C_Guy

Unless the new motherboard is very close to the old motherboard
(manufacturer, chipset, BIOS) it is most likely going to be necessary for
you to do a repair install of Windows XP. This is not difficult but does
take a bit of time. See
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm for complete
instructions.

Good luck



Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Normally, unless the new motherboard is virtually identical to the
old one (same chipset, IDE controllers, etc), you'll need to perform a
repair (a.k.a. in-place upgrade) installation, at the very least:

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

This may also require re-activation. If it's been more than 120
days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most
likely be able to activate via the Internet without problem. If it's
been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.


Bruce Chambers

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"C_Guy" > wrote in message
...
> Hey everyone!
>
> I am planning a major hardware upgarde including new
> motherboard, processor, RAM, video and sound card. I
> already have Wiondows XP Pro installed.
>
> Can I simply plug my existing hard drive with Widnows XP
> in the new system or do I have to completely re-install
> Windows XP after the upgrade?
>
> Thank you for your help!
>
> -C_Guy