Sort of a long question, my thanks in advance. I plan in the near future to do a complete overhaul over my current computer, new mob, cpu, gpu, ect., the question is when i change everything, may i keep the os and all the files on my current hd and "plug and play" into my new setup, thus essentially being the same computer just different hardware. My common sense says i can, but i wasn't too sure so i figured i ask, thanks
If your OS is Windows then it is Tied to the motherboard, you would need to reinstall. Now if you have an OEM Windows, then you would need to buy another copy, but this can be avoided by buying the retain version or telling MS that your mobo died. Everything else you can "plug and play" with the same OS, but motherboards are off limits.
Licensing issues aside; the real problem is going to be the drivers. It's always best to do a re-install when making major hardware changes; but if you do the drive swap, then you should first un-install all the drivers and then remove all traces of them with driver cleaner before migrating the drive to the other rig, you may have to re-activate, but as long as you clearly tell them that you're transferring the license to a new machine, they shouldn't give you any troubles with it.
i some what figured that drivers might be an issue, but i might just pick up another copy of windows (most likely not vista ha) keeping this computer intact, thanks for your help guys
Vista used to be bad but that's just because it was the new OS and we all know how bad MS are with releasing something that actually works from the start.
Unfortunately, I see no advantage in going to Vista apart from the 64-bit ness of the OS. My wife's lappy runs Vista and I can't see what makes it so good. For the OP, you will need to either reinstall XP or do a rescue install. I've done it once in the past (it reinstalls the OS back to the original settings) but I can't for the life of me remember how to do it. I know that the rescue install offered in the second screen is not the one to go for. Edit: Found an article on the MS website. From memory, this is what I did (I think). Linky Sorry for the lack of info, my memory is shot to hell these days. Andy
Invariably, you will need to either reinstall or repair-install, as Shielder said above. The repair option being after the F8 'agreement' part (not the first repair option that comes up on screen). This is because it rebuilds (amongst other things) the hardware abstraction layer (HAL) which basically lets the bios know where the OS is. After performing a repair install, you will need to re-apply all those lovely XP patches again. Even with a slip-streamed SP2 install cd, there's getting on for a good hundred or so updates! There is an element of plug and pray with XP though. As long as the motherboard's chipset is the same, eg Intel 945, you can literally boot straight away. Well, it worked for me recently when I had to save some data off a dying hdd.
thanks everyone for their replies, although some people would rather discuss vista , but thanks for everyones help
There's a method of removing all hardware by deleting most of the Enum entries in XP's registry then shutting down and changing the motherboard. This thread at Ars also covers a method. I used to change the graphics to generic VGA and uninstall the HDD drivers, along with Soundcard (with onboard sound).
