[zenkmander]

Well, I think I've come to the point where I need a new motherboard. Since I'm not very mobo-smart, I'd appreciate it if someone could give me a basic walkthrough of the requirements and installation.

I know the CPU socket, form factor, and hard drive type so far. I've found a board that should match up with what I have now. However, I'm still unsure of a lot of things. Do I need to reinstall my OS when replacing my motherboard? Do I need to wipe my HD? Stuff like that.

I'll give the specifics. I have a Celeron D 330 processor, socket 478. The mobo I'm looking to get can be viewed at http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...131-460&DEPA=0. I'd really appreciate it if someone helped me out with this.

[>GSXR<mrbusa]

Originally Posted by zenkmander

Well, I think I've come to the point where I need a new motherboard. Since I'm not very mobo-smart, I'd appreciate it if someone could give me a basic walkthrough of the requirements and installation.

I know the CPU socket, form factor, and hard drive type so far. I've found a board that should match up with what I have now. However, I'm still unsure of a lot of things. Do I need to reinstall my OS when replacing my motherboard? Do I need to wipe my HD? Stuff like that.

I'll give the specifics. I have a Celeron D 330 processor, socket 478. The mobo I'm looking to get can be viewed at http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...131-460&DEPA=0. I'd really appreciate it if someone helped me out with this.

you cant really go wrong with an asus board.i would consider updating to a p4 as well to get the full benifit of the board.but your celeron will work just fine if you are short on funds for pc upgrades.
yes,you should reinstall windows when you get your new board.also search asus site for the most current bios and chipset drivers.if you could, i would make a floppy with the most current bios and flash the board before you install windows.it doesnt matter a whole lot but it is a good idea to have everything up to date before a fresh install.also look for any firmware updates for your optical drives and if possible per your mfgs update app try to flash them before windows install also.you could do that on your current install if all they have is a os based flash utillity.
as for vapeing your current drive it depends on if you have multiple partitions set up or not.if you have windows on one partition and data on the rest wether it be in one or more partitions then all you need to do is vape the c: partition.if your drive is set up as one partition then you need to backup all your data and format the whole drive.my advise on the next install if this is the case is to set up atleast four partitions.one for windows and apps,10 to 15 gigs,one for games,depends on the amount of games you have,one for data,depends on how much data you have,and one for swap file.the swap file partition is up to you because if you only have one drive then there is no performance gain.if you have two drives then make sure you place the swap file in a small partition on the second drive.i make mine two gigs with a static swapfile at 1024/1024.it kinda depends on how much ram you have as to how big the swapfile should be and nobody really aggrees on a particualar size.good luck

[zenkmander]

So do you have to reinstall the OS/wipe the hard drive no matter what? Or is that just optional?

[>GSXR<mrbusa]

Originally Posted by zenkmander

So do you have to reinstall the OS/wipe the hard drive no matter what? Or is that just optional?

i have never not formated for any upgrade such as yours.if you search arround you will find threads and threads of issues related to not reinstalling windows for a mobo swap.the only way i personally would not reformat is if it was a swap for the exact mobo.you will have driver issue after driver issue.if you want to know for sure then just backup data and give it a go.

[zenkmander]

So you're saying that reinstalling is highly recommended, but not required? Is it guaranteed that I'll run into problems if I don't wipe?

[>GSXR<mrbusa]

Originally Posted by zenkmander

So you're saying that reinstalling is highly recommended, but not required? Is it guaranteed that I'll run into problems if I don't wipe?

dude,reformat your hardrive because you will HAVE PROBLEMS.if you have MULTIPLE PARTITIONS then just REPARTITION THE C: DRIVE,unless you installed GAMES OR APPS ON ANOTHER PARTITION then you have to repartition THAT PARTITION ALSO.*YOU HAVE TO REINSTALL WINDOWS WHEN YOU SWAP MOBOS UNLESS IT IS THE EXACT SAME MOBO THAT ALREADY HAS THE EXACT SAME BIOS* GOOD LUCK

[Nuke209]

^^^
Not really alot about the bios but more of the chipset and the chipset driver
it will cause conflicts and sometimes windows wont boot and can corrupt

And I am recommending u to format, dont be stubborn about it
If you have data on it that you need, you should back them up by hooking ur hd as a slave on another comp and saving them onto another hd or disc

[Dyre Straits]

I heartily recommend and agree with the above posters about reformatting and installing fresh on a motherboard swap. I HAVE tried it without doing it twice. Each time resulted in an ultimate reformat anyway.

If you have the funds, I'd go ahead and follow through on what Nuke209 suggests: i.e. buy a brand new larger HD for your new OS and use your current drive as a slave. That's been my choice of options for the last several upgrades. Once you get up and running, you can then move files over as you see fit. Once you're happy, you can then reformat only the slave drive and you have one clean drive to use for storage.

BUT, by all means, don't try installing a new motherboard without using a new or reformatted HD.

[FearTheTerp]

REFORMAT. When i switched motherboards and tried to boot up windows with the same harddrive, it didn't boot. It would just restart over and over again. I heard that it is protection from ghosting by microsoft.

[Zelig]

You should reformat, but if you don't want to, go ahead and try without. I managed a migration from a celeron 433 to my current athlon xp 2800+ without a format, since I didn't have a copy of XP, which I got a couple of weeks after.

[daedal]

I would definitly recommend you format and do a clean re-install when swapping motherboards but at the very least, do re-install Windows or you'll have loads of problems.