Upgraded to EP45-DS3R - error loading operating system

[Schlemstar]

Upgraded motherboard only from ASUS P5B-E to Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R and after POST, get a stop error - "error loading operating system."

System specs: Upgraded mobo BIOS from ver 6 to ver 8 - no difference. Windows XP 32-bit, SP2, Intel E8400 proc, 4GB OCZ 800 MHz Reaper dual-channel DDR2 (also have 2 GB Corsair XMS2 800 MHz DDR2 - tried that w/no difference.) WD 250 GB SATA HD, EVGA 8800GTX, CoolerMaster 750W PS.

Seems like I need to load mobo/chipset drivers, but I'm not sure how to do that. I tried doing a repair installation using the XP install disk, but that didn't work. I have a second computer that is non-SATA so I am able to do some swapping here and there (and luckily still connect to the Internet!). I also tried to copy drivers off of the mobo CD onto a floppy, but the CD locks up on my other computer for some reason (because it isn't a Gigabyte board?)

Help please!
-Schlemstar

[svcglobal]

Re: Upgraded to EP45-DS3R - error loading operating system

The is no way to exchange the entire mother board (and its dedicated hardware that do control its HD) without re-installing all Windows system again.
The "My Documents" can be restored if you use that one for data but it is all.

[b_rubenstein]

Re: Upgraded to EP45-DS3R - error loading operating system

The "trick" to swapping mother boards without reinstalling Windows, is to first uninstall all the motherboard/chipset drivers before doing the swap. See this piece: Swapping your board without so much as a reinstall (243kB of images, updated Jun '06) - Topic Powered by eve community

The key drivers are for the hard disk controllers, because if there are hardware specific drivers loaded that don't match the hardware, the OS won't be able to read the hard disk for loading the OS.

I've swapped mother boards, with very different hardware, a number of times without having to reload Windows.