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| Thread ID: 76747 | 2007-02-14 22:33:00 | Replacing a Motherboard | Strommer (42) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 524745 | 2007-02-14 22:33:00 | A few questions from someone who has never replaced a MB. (My other thread pressf1.pcworld.co.nz is now far from the original topic so I thought it best to start anew.) When a new mb is put into a PC, how are the new drivers added? Via the BIOS or some other way than doing it from Windows? I do not understand if Windows will start at all from an old HD that has WinXP on it. Or is it always necessary to boot from a WinXP installation disk? The PC that I am upgrading did not come with a WinXP disk, only a recovery CD that restores from a partition on the HD - but as Jen said in my other thread this will probably not work as the partition will be matched to the old MB. About using drive image (Acronis) - am I wrong in assuming a drive image could be transferred to a different PC and not just the one that it was made from? I was in an internet cafe once and saw nearly all of the PCs being Ghosted at the same time from what I thougt was one image. Just found this on MS Knowledge Base: For Windows XP: To replace a failed motherboard with a new motherboard and to then reconfigure Windows to work with the new motherboard, do the following: 1. Turn off the computer. 2. Replace the existing motherboard with the new motherboard. 3. Insert your Windows CD in the CD-ROM drive or the DVD-ROM drive, and start the computer from the CD. a. When you are prompted To set up Windows now, press ENTER, press ENTER. Setup looks for any previous installations of Windows XP on the hard disk and then displays a list of any previous installations that it finds. b. Use the arrow keys to select the installation that you want to repair, and then press R to select the To repair the selected Windows installation, press R option. Cr*p, cannot find a COA sticker on the PC. It was bought at Farmers, PC Company, according to the previous owner. Well well well, if a drive image does not work and a MS serial number is needed for Repair (and cannot somehow be retrieved when using the old HD as a slave in my destop), then Linux here we come! |
Strommer (42) | ||
| 524746 | 2007-02-14 22:41:00 | Foxy wrote (at my old thread): That method is a "dirty install" which has been mentioned quite often here if you want to do a search. And yes, you will need the COA number before it can be performed. I would highly recommend getting the data off the hard drive by slaving it to another PC as soon as you can, if the data is important. Murphy's Law and all that kind of thing... I am going to try to slave the old HD sometime later today. Hopefully this will work: In my main PC there are two HD's so I thought simply replacing the secondary HD (used for back up, not with WinXP on it) would enable me to read the data off the old HD. Correct? Is there any way the WinXP serial number can be found when accessing the old HD like this? The original PC with WinXP is legit - it just did not come with a WinXP installation disk, only a recovery CD. Thanks. |
Strommer (42) | ||
| 524747 | 2007-02-14 22:45:00 | When a new mb is put into a PC, how are the new drivers added? Via the BIOS or some other way than doing it from Windows? I do not understand if Windows will start at all from an old HD that has WinXP on it. Or is it always necessary to boot from a WinXP installation disk?Drivers are installed after Windows is installed as you require an operating system to be present first (with the exception of some s-ATA drivers). The PC that I am upgrading did not come with a WinXP disk, only a recovery CD that restores from a partition on the HD - but as Jen said in my other thread this will probably not work as the partition will be matched to the old MB.To clarify your understanding, the PC is a PC Company computer. They were known for locking in the Recovery CD into the original motherboard BIOS so that it wouldn't work if you either used a non-PC Company supplied BIOS update or changed the motherboard. About using drive image (Acronis) - am I wrong in assuming a drive image could be transferred to a different PC and not just the one that it was made from? I was in an internet cafe once and saw nearly all of the PCs being Ghosted at the same time from what I thougt was one image.The internet cafe would of had identical hardware in their computers which is why one image can be used on many computers without problems. Cr*p, cannot find a COA sticker on the PC. It was bought at Farmers, PC Company, according to the previous owner. All PC Company computers came with the COA sticker somewhere on the computer case. If you have searched all sides of the case and cannot find it, then the original owner must of removed it before it was sold. You can only extract the COA number off the disk if the OS is still working. |
Jen (38) | ||
| 524748 | 2007-02-14 22:54:00 | I should add, once you have rescued off any data you need from the old hard drive, you have nothing to lose by attempting to just boot up the computer with the original hard drive and see what happens. Try booting into Safe Mode first. | Jen (38) | ||
| 524749 | 2007-02-14 22:59:00 | If you can find the COA you can use another Windows XP CD to perform the "dirty install" so you won't need the recovery CD. I haven't tried it myself but I don't think you will be able to retrieve the key by slaving the drive to another, unfortunately. The utility would just display the master computer's Windows key. |
FoxyMX (5) | ||
| 524750 | 2007-02-14 23:23:00 | Just having a browse ... it looks like the Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ubcd4win.com/) has a version of the Magical Jellybean Keyfinder that will work on a slave drive. Haven't this CD myself, but it looks like an interesting one. | davehartley (3487) | ||
| 524751 | 2007-02-14 23:25:00 | RE Retrieving the windows key - it is possible to do this from BartPE, but you will need a windows CD in order to make a BartPE disk in the first place, so not sure how helpful this is... | Erayd (23) | ||
| 524752 | 2007-02-14 23:28:00 | Oh silly me ... you need a Windows CD for the Ultimate Boot CD too! :( I found another utility at NirSoft (www.nirsoft.net) that looks like it'd work. | davehartley (3487) | ||
| 524753 | 2007-02-15 01:16:00 | Oh silly me ... you need a Windows CD for the Ultimate Boot CD too! :( I found another utility at NirSoft (www.nirsoft.net) that looks like it'd work. Thanks Dave. It looks interesting: ProduKey is a small utility that displays the ProductID and the CD-Key of MS-Office, Windows, Exchange Server, and SQL Server installed on your computer. You can view this information for your current running operating system, or for another operating system/computer - by using command-line options. This utility can be useful if you lost the product key of your Windows/Office, and you want to reinstall it on your computer. |
Strommer (42) | ||
| 524754 | 2007-02-15 01:36:00 | If you can find the COA you can use another Windows XP CD to perform the "dirty install" so you won't need the recovery CD. I haven't tried it myself but I don't think you will be able to retrieve the key by slaving the drive to another, unfortunately. The utility would just display the master computer's Windows key. Hey, I found the COA sticker.! Don't know how :o I missed it before, must have not had my specs on. Jen - thanks for the explanation but I am still confused on one point: if the MB drivers can only be installed once the OS is operating, this means the MB is working without the proper drivers when the OS is first installed. I suppose WinXP has a set of generic MB drivers but without the proper drivers that match the MB, the MB will not be as efficient. Correct? .... and... OK, I will try booting up using the old HD, as you say there is nothing to lose. I'll start on it this evening. This is a big project for me. What I have managed to do so far is to remove the HD (piece of cake) and the PS (marked a few connectors and hope that I can figure out :eek: where everything goes on the new mb!). Removing the old mb was a real pain. Once I removed all the screws it took lots of wiggling to get it off the female screw settings and I kept looking for a hidden screw that I had missed. I sure hope the new mb goes on without me having to whack :badpc: it with a hammer. For those of you who routinely dive into PCs and replace everything, you may probably wonder what the big deal is, but for me who has only replaced a modem and CD-DVD-RW, this is a :p major effort. |
Strommer (42) | ||
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