Upgrading motherboards
 

Alright, soon I'm gonna be installing my new motherboard. Currently I have a Soyo Ultra Dragon KT333 Platnium Edition. I am going to be upgrading to the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe. Now, last time I installed a new motherboard I had to reformat and re-install my operating system. Does anyone know what I can do so that I won't have to do all that again? I have so much stuff on my comp I don't want to loose. Also, before I install the board, I will be making a back up of my disc from Drive Image 7.0. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

I've never had any problems with this, but I can somewhat understand how it could become an issue.

I would first suggest loading the drivers for your new motherboard onto the harddisk before actually installing the new one.

Second, if your really concerned about valuable data, how about getting a 40Gig drive, to just host your operating system, then setting your current drive as slave?

Here is what I always do when performing a serious upgrade.

I network my laptop, and the PC im working on togther, and transfer ALL the files to the laptop. If something goes wrong, i can simply restore from the laptop. That way your not shuffling about 15 CD's / DVD's

When ever replacing your motherboard I would always do a clean install. I just feel better. If your like me I replace motherboard/CPUs about every 4-5 weeks. ( yes, and don't ask how many PCs I have )

There have been times where I've upgraded MB with the same chipsets so I did not do a fresh install. But if your going from one type of chipset to another I would do the fresh install.

Good luck

Ok, well I have Drive Image 7, and I am going to back up all my data onto an external hard disk drive via drive image. but i think ill do what you said, get a 40gig drive and make this one as a slave. any more help from you guys is appreciated.

anyone please?

What else do you need help with? configuring jumper pins to make the drive slave? thats easy... just check any hard drive manual (you can see some online) all are essentially the same. Make sure you have your bios to auto detect.

on the IDE cable...

The end of the line should be master, and the middle of the line should be slave.