Switching motherboards and processors

Generally the HAL (Hardware abstraction layer) is tied to the particular chipset/device package. You used to be able to boot Win98 and have the OS find all the new devices (sometimes...), but rarely NT.
From W2K on, this was no longer possible--this was a piracy issue--you could no longer clone drives, stick 'em in other machines & ship 'em out the door...

Hi,

Win2k, XP and, presumably, Vista are difficulty to move from one computer (mobo) to another. One trick is to change your hard disk controller in device manager, to be the standard IDE controller supplied with XP before changing the mobo. After changing the mobo XP uses its generic IDE driver, which you can then update to the new mobos. NOTE this doesn't always work.

Herb

before removing the hard drive from the old computer. It's not worth the trouble. But you asked if it can be done, not for my opinion. Free of charge, FWIW.

Windows installs so many motherboard devices, that any change becomes cumbersome, and oftentimes leads to instability. It's one reason to standardize hardware types in an office environment, including motherboard make and model, although that's not always possible. If you have to (or really want to) change motherboards, if it were me, I'd plan for the worst and hope for the best.

When you make major hardware changes it is always best practice to perform a clean installation of the operating system and drivers.

While not as bad as Windows 98 or Me was, Windows XP does bloat up and slow down over time.

Another thing that XP does, is it remembers EVERY piece of hardware that was ever attached to the system. As you change out hardware, the registry grows bigger and requires more resources.

With Windows 98, a home system was good for 6 months to 2 years before it slowed down enough to be noticeable. For XP, that period of time is several times longer.

Still, if your system has been up and running for over 3 years, it can be well worth the effort to back up your files and format the hard drive when making a major hardware upgrade.

Chas

You do not have to do a clean install. Windows XP will detect the new components and adjust as needed. As long as your not hard drives are not using RAID you will be fine.

I would copy all the drivers for the new motherboard to your system first just to make it easier for Win XP to find all of the drivers when it first boots using the new hardware.

Also, Expect Win XP to force you to reactivate it's license. Microsoft will probably consider this a major hardware change and will want you to re-enter your product key.