New mobo; will i have to reformat?

[suicide007]

if i upgrade mobo's, will i have to reformat my hd?

I have a crappy biostar mobo with a p4, and was thinking about upgrading to conroe, which would mean a new mobo. If i did, would i have to reinstall windows or would it still boot from a different motherboard?

I need to know.

 

[Cdub89]

Here Check out my thread i asked the same question http://www.techist.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=130896

 

[suicide007]

o. i searched but i didnt see that you had posted on this before. ok. Well, im kinda scared now, cause i can imagine that the whole repair thing would cause problems later.

If i do end up upgrading, ill just dedicate an entire day or two afterwards to restoring all my files. It wouldnt take that long. except that ive already registered a lot of my games...

If i did have to reformat, would my games still work?

 

[Cdub89]

Ya im not going to do that repair crap i would rather reformat. Your games will still work but you will have to install them or download them again.

 

[suicide007]

Ok. Cause im just a little worried cause ive already registered oblivion and bf2 and all the others. But i trust you. (kinda)

 

[lancec2c30]

your regestration stuff should stay there I would assume

 

[Ste]

The only reason why you need to run a repair or format when changing hardware is because of the Windows HAL configuration. It is specific to the hardware that was present when windows was installed. A repair will update the HAL configuration. Nothing will be lost, (Cept windows updates) Games will remain, all programs, all files and all registrations.


IMO, back it all up, try the repair first. Than if no go, you can reformat and reinstall..

 

[b0dge]

I always find it's better to do a complete re-install. Every time I've tried the repair option, it goes ok for a while, then something always goes wrong. there's apps installed on any system that don't like the repair process. You'll have a much easier time if you install windows fresh. IMO.

Oh, and if you do reinstall, everything will work, as long as you've got all your serial numbers/cd keys etc...

 

[baronvongogo]

If you just did a repair I presume all the old mobo drivers would still be floating around the comp wouldnt that cause problems also? I vote for reinstalling.

 

[Ste]

Not if you uninstall them first.

It depends on how much he will have to reinstall. In some cases its easier to repair and in others its easier to reformat,