Platform Upgrade=Windows Reinstall?

[DrJohnFever]

I plan to upgrade my current CPU, Mobo, and RAM. It will either be to BD or SB, but that is irrelevant.

I am 100% fine with reformatting my SSD if need be, however I think I will grandfather the old parts (Athlon x4 635, M4A87TD-EVO and 4GB G. Skill Ripjaws) to my parents computer as a present for my father. They have had the computer for 4-5 years and I'm sure they wouldn't be a huge fan of losing all their stuff, especially my mother who cannot comprehend what a hardware upgrade might do for her.

So is there a way I can definitely do this?

If it helps they use a Pentium 4 640 with some Intel LGA775 board. They have 2 HDDs and a 4670. They are running Windows XP.

 

[Perineum]

Is it Windows 7? If so, just plug it in. It's rare that I do a reinstall for a hardware upgrade.

With Windows XP I would do repair installs if needed though...

 

[_dangtx_]

depends. best thing would be to copy paste 'users' somewhere,and fresh install

 

[roh_ultima]

i've done the whole switch out motherboard thing with w7

just was more curious to see what would happen
since XP was usually a VERY unhappy camper and at times not even boot up and give BSOD

it actually took a very long time to update itself , honestly i think i could have installed the OS in less time
but after it was done, seemed to work fine.

 

[ccm001]

I've done hardware upgrades to a few friends and relatives computers running windows xp. It can be done without having to reformat and reinstall xp. With win xp you need an original retail xp disc (not an oem disc) and you'll have the option of doing a repair install when booting from the cd. The repair install redetects the new hardware and makes changes. All the data and programs are intact afterwards (if sucessful) and nothing changes for the user.

First of all it is very important to do a complete backup or image of the hardrive before you attempt. That way if the repair install doesn't work, just put all the old hardware back, restore the hardrive, and no harm done.

One time it did not work for me the first time, I had to do a repair install 2 more times before it finally took. You also need your windows xp key to enter during the repair install. One time I had to call Microsoft to get a new xp key because the old one would not work - it was an automated system, I didn't even have to talk to anyone to get the new key.

But as I said before, you need a retail xp disc, an oem one (dell, hp, etc) won't have the repair installation option because the oem windows key is only for the computer as it was purchased. But I have done the repair install on a compaq and an acer using a retail xp disc. Of course you need the same version of xp for it to work (home, pro, etc)

Here is a guide with pictures: Repair Windows XP - How To Perform a Repair Installation of Windows XP - Part 1 of 2

I've done this 5 or 6 times and the end result was always a working but faster and better computer for the owner! Good luck!

 

[Perineum]

Repair installs is what I always did with Windows XP. It worked everytime and never lost any data. In fact, the user was never aware it happened.

 

[Addictedtokaos]

I just swapped out my X48 for a p67 with Windows 7 Pro installed and it booted into windows. I was actually suprised to see my desktop as I was trying to boot the windows setup dvd.

It may run but I just feel better knowing there will be know driver or sys file conflicts or registry issues.

 

[Borg]

Seems like an easy answer to me. Correct me if I'm wrong or inaccurate but I think the main reason you might have an issue is because of chipset differences and thus, driver differences. If you have variation there, you'll definitely want to re-install the OS to be safe.

There may be some utilization of generic drivers but in most cases, there will be differences and then there will be some conflict and where Windows is expecting a certain driver, there will be something else there.

Imho, the best thing to do is to compare the home pages of the hardware and compare the chipsets/drivers.

In most cases, it's just easier to re-install and then you don't have to concern yourself with problems that might arise.

I would just copy all the data (files) and settings to another drive so that when you re-install, the data is still there and usable. Bookmarks can be carried over as well.

 

[DrJohnFever]

Is there an easy way to go from XP to 7 without losing files? That could be another option as it seems that 7 is a lot more upgrade friendly...

 

[ccm001]

Is there an easy way to go from XP to 7 without losing files? That could be another option as it seems that 7 is a lot more upgrade friendly...

I realize now that my post may have made it sound ominous, but its quite easy. I only had trouble once out of the 5 or 6 tmes I did it, and all it took was another couple of tries.

You can upgrade from xp to windows 7. But if your parents are anything like mine, they'd rather stick with xp as it is what they know. My parents went to windows 7 (new comp) and they now wish they had gotten me to do an upgrade instead.