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swapping motherboards

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  • swapping motherboards

    I currently have a Asus A8N-E motherboard and I want to change it to a Asus SLI motherboard. I know I will have to get a sli certified power supply, and another video card. My question is, can I boot my old hard drive with the new motherboard? I don't want to lose any of my files.

  • #2
    Re: swapping motherboards

    Unless the chipset is identical to the old mainboard, you are always best to install the operating system fresh when cahnging out motherboards. This would also be a great opportunity for you to partition the drive and save your important data to the second (non-bootable) partition. This will allow for future reinstalls without having to worry about your data since it will be on another partition.
    Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
    My Toys

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    • #3
      Re: swapping motherboards

      When I first installed windows I created one partition. How do I create another one?

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      • #4
        Re: swapping motherboards

        SAve off your important files to another drive or to CDs. When you install Windows (assuming XP... will be a bit different for other versions), you should be given an option early on to choose which drive. From here you'll be able to create a smaller partition to install the system on. Once Windows is installed, you can right click My Computer, choose "Manage" and then go into the disk management utility. Once here you can create another partition using the reamainder of the drive then format it. When you have finished formatting, Windows will recognize the drive and assign it a drive letter. Just restore your important data to the newly formed partition and save future important data to this partition as well. Now when you need to scrap Windows you can simply format the C:\ drive and reinstall it without fear of losing the data that is on the other partition.
        Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
        My Toys

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        • #5
          Re: swapping motherboards

          I did a swap from a DFI NF3 board to a MSI NF3 board and it was only a matter of swapping boards and it booted right up into windows. That being said, I ran into many other drivers issues that resulted in me doing a full reinstall of Windows. You should be able to just switch the boards, but your PC would run better, as Darthtanion said, by doing a fresh install.
          GIgabyte GA-990FXA-UD3
          AMD FX8120 @ 4GHz
          Patriot 1866MHz EL series 2X4GB DDR3
          Powercolour HD 6970 2GB w/XFX 8800GT 512MB Hybrid PhysX
          Creative X-FI titanium HD w/Technics class A 300W amp and tower speakers
          PC P&C 500W PSU
          2TB Seagate
          Coolermaster 690II w/Corsair H100 tucked under the hood

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