back up for new M/B

[levemircento]

My other half is having a new motherboard and / or processor installed

She has enormous amount of programs and files on her pc, will they have to be backed up, or will the computer just re-configure itself when started back up after installation, on its original hard drive as we dont plan re-installing windows xp

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

Depending on how different the motherboard is , you may be very lucky to get away with just needing to install some new drivers and re-activating windows (assuming XP or newer).

It's quite likely that it won't boot at all after a board swap though , especially if it's a much newer one. You'd be daft not to have a backup of your data anyway , but especially when doing something "risky" like this.

 

[panda1408]

If you are using the same processor, you probably be able to get it to boot up, I was able to boot straight back into Windows 7 after I changed my motherboard and kept the same processor, I'm not sure if it will work the same with XP. You will definately have to re-activate.

 

[danhans115]

Its usually on the IDE controllers, so its linked to the motherboard chipset.
If your old mobo is VIA based and so is the new one you are maybe okay, same for intel, nvidia etc.

But if it is swapped from that of another chipset its more difficult as soon as the machine boots 9/10 you get inaccessible boot device.


Dan

 

[levemircento]

In th end we just needed a new[er] processor, it was 1.5ghz before and she now has a 2.4ghz in, yeah I know its not as fancy as modern stuff but it does the job

now, a memory question

in the machine we have 2 x 256 DDR sticks, today we bought a stick of 1gb but it would not run, the bios only listed it as 32mb

are there any online programs available that will tell me what the system has, and what it will upgrade to? I assume that I may need 2 x 512 sticks of DDR, the place I bought it said I can return it so am gonna do that tomorrow

 

[Stu DemonD]

Try using the online Crucial system tool

http://www.crucial.com/uk/

 

[levemircento]

thanks stu