Do i need to reformat?

[j12]

I am currently using a ECS P4M800-M7 (V3.1) motherboard. and i want to upgrade to an ECS P4M800PRO-M (V2.0). the first motherboard is older and the main difference between the two motherboards is that the second one supports core 2 duo's. i was wondering if i upgraded to the second motherboard would i need to reformat my computer. because the two motherboards are exactly the same except the second one can support core 2 duo's.

 

[lancec2c30]

Well only way to tell is to swap motherboards turn it on and see what happens. If it doenst boot or gets errors, needs a reformat. If not then you are good

 

[j12]

yea i was thinking the same. so just try it and if it works good and if it doesent backup my files and reformat.

 

[lancec2c30]

Ya just back up your files before you try anything. If it says do a repair install or anything just reformat, repairs will slow performance a lot of the time.

 

[j12]

anyone else have anything to say about this. i plan on doing this tonight.

so it seems like i will need to reformat.

 

[Dexaroni]

Stop.

No, do not reformat before you install the new motherboard.

Install the board, and if you keep crashing to the blue screen in windows, THEN reformat. For example, I have had friends that have upgraded just the motherboard to a different model of the same brand, while I upgraded from an ECS with an ATI chipset to an eVGA with a Nforce chipset, so windows was REALLY confused.

My other suggestion: Have you already bought the board yet? If so, congratulations on your new mobo, but if not, I suggest well, anything but ECS. From my experience, their customer support and construction quality absolutely suck, especially when you can get comparable boards for the same price.

Hope I was able to help you out.

Dex

 

[j12]

thanks dex for all the help. the 6300 and the crap motherboard was a combo deal for $170. so i bought it. i will get a new motherboard sometime soon. yes i already knows that ecs sucks @$$ but it was a good deal. i have had several ecs motherboards and maybe 1in3 of them have no problems. and i didnt even know ECS had customer support and the construction looks the same and as good as every other motherboard.

i will be upgrading my motherboard from a via chipset to another via chipset and both of the motherboards are identical, same brand same series etc. so i guess there is some grim hope that i will not need to reformat.

 

[lancec2c30]

good luck, just if anything is buggy or stuff doesnt work just reformat.

 

[Ste]

Ways to change mobo and not reformat

 

[j12]

yep i just changed mobo and proccessor and i did not have to reformat. i did it all without a hitch. as you can see i redid my sig a little. its a very noticeable performance increase from my pentium 4 506. now i only concern is overclocking because i have DDR400 ram.