sysprep
 

I want to move a windows XP installation to a new motherboard. I've heard MS's Sysprep should work fine for this. Will it?

Maybe. There are a few requirements for the transfer to be successful. Be sure to read the documentation first.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/p...uplication.asp

The key requirement on the above page is:
The mass–storage controllers (IDE or SCSI) must be identical between the reference and destination computers.

If you use an addon promise or SCSI card, you shouldn't have a problem. The onboard promise controllers on some mobos may be different. After Sysprep, you will need to run Ghost or DiskCopy or something similar.

what i want to do is simply:
1. Run sysprep
2. put my new motherboard into the exact same system with same HD
3. have windows work just as it did before


How do i tell if the mass-storage controllers are the same? Could someone explain this? Does this simply mean that if I'm running IDE right now i can't run SCSI? Or does it mean that if i have Ultra ATA/100 I can't run ATA/133?

It means that you need the have the same controller for the HD on both mobos. You'd have to check the mobo manufaturer's website or the manual that came with each. Either will list the type of controller the board uses. For an example, I'm using an MSI K7TPro2. MSI's website says my board has a VT82C686B South Bridge chipset.
The VT82C686B is the chipset of the "South Bridge." The South Bridge handles several things, including IDE conrollers. As long as both motherboards have the same South Bridge, then you should be okay. Depending on the controller it may or may not support both ATA100 and ATA133. What are the model numbers of the two motherboards?

if the HD controllers aren't the same set the control to the standard non bus master drivers, thats the bare minimum driver and works on either. use the hardware control panel to change the driver

The models of the mobos are:
my current: FIC VB-601 (this page says it has an "Intel 440bx chipset" but i think that's north bridge, doesn't specify a south chipset. Device Manager says the IDE/ATA ATAPI controller is Intel 82731AB\EB, is that the south bridge?)
my new: MSI 6712 (either KT4V or KT3V i haven't decided which yet, probably 4V but in any case both have the VIA® VT8235 Chipset)

charliex, does that mean any controller will work as long as i set the driver to that? are you sure?

gamer, yeah if you set it to use the basic microsoft driver, not the manufactureres one, i went trhough this once with 2K redid the motherboard and it failed, then checked up on it and found that ide controllers were different and thats one thing windows isnt able to redetect it seems,.

i'd imagine since they are first load, so i put the old motherboard back and reset the drivers back to the standard ide divers, changed back to the new motherboard and installed the bus mastering drivers for the new MB.


this is what you will get
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;314082

It doesn't list the solution i gave, but I just checked my XP and it does allow you to select "standard dual channel ide" drivers when you do the hardware update drivers, let me pick me own.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...LE_BOOT_DEVICE

a quick scan of google will show you its a common problem

You might have to change you Hal type as well, the first entry in the list usually, typically its the same, but it might change, its the motherboard type, single, dual, acpi etc

Its possible that XP has something new that doesn't allow it to go as smoothly as 2K but i doubt it, since windows XP has to be able to boot on a generic system the "Dual standard ide" drivers should work just fine, i'm thinking product activitation, but with a matching Hal and the default ide driver you should be fine.

I always recommend clean installs.

Format your harddrive, start with a fresh registry . . . your computer will love you for it.

charliex thanks for your help. I'll let you know how it works out -- might not get my new mobo for a month or so though. Just wanted to make sure it would work before i proceeded...

antagony: my computer would love me, but i wouldn't love it.