Swap motherboard without reinstalling?

[valnar]

I am interested in upgrading my Server (Windows 7 32-bit) from it's current motherboard to something much newer. Both are Intel.

The problem is I would really not rather reinstall everything. I have Sage, Plex, Squeezebox, USB-UIRT settings and other things that would take too long to reinstall.

Has anyone swapped a motherboard and just reinstalled all the broken video/audio/chipset/etc drivers and had it still function just fine?

[will]

Originally Posted by valnar

Has anyone swapped a motherboard and just reinstalled all the broken video/audio/chipset/etc drivers and had it still function just fine?

Unfortunately that isn't easy. Unless you use the same same MB you will get tons of errors and Windows will blue screen. Especially if the architecture of the CPU, I/O stream, and the MB chipset are not the same.

This is why I still use a CPU/MB from 07 and an OS from 2003. The thought of rebuilding this system, especially with my raid arrays, does not sound like fun when I already have a perfectly stable and great working system. I've actually added in an additional server that is more powerful just for comskipping because of how old my primary system is.

Upgrading the MB can be done, but you will need to spend a lot of time upfront trying to prepare the system and then there is no guarantee it will work. It will probably be less of a time investment to do a clean install and copy over config files.

I'd recommend searching outside of the STV forum for tips.

[JustFred]

Originally Posted by valnar

Has anyone swapped a motherboard and just reinstalled all the broken video/audio/chipset/etc drivers and had it still function just fine?

I've done many Win7 MoBo upgrades like that, without any problems. Backed up the disk, moved it to the new MoBo and loaded the missing drivers. Easy.

WinXP, on the other hand, was a mess in this regard.

The only minor complication comes when switching between non-AHCI and AHCI. Non-AHCI tended to be the default for old systems, while AHCI-enabled is the norm for most new stuff. Still, easy to deal with if you're aware of it.

[valnar]

I can't remember the generation, but it's only 2 gens ago. I think I might be okay. Worth a shot I suppose!

[troycheek]

Completely and utterly NOT recommended, but probably doable. My old Sage server went through three or four CPU/motherboard swaps. In each case, enough of Windows still loaded to boot to the desktop, from where I was able to locate and install the needed drivers. Once I had to dig into some registry settings to get Windows to recognize that I now had a dual core CPU, but that's about it. I also upgraded from Windows 2000 to XP to Vista "in place" instead of starting with clean installs each time. The computer still worked after several years of this, but I also had random restarts, random lost recording drives, random program hangs, etc. It's now retired from server duty and crunching SETI@home for me.

So, since you are no doubt going to back up EVERYTHING to another computer and/or an external drive anyway before attempting the upgrade, go ahead and try it. The worst that can happen is that it won't work and you'll have to nuke, pave, and re-install.

[dravenone]

If you have spare parts, I would suggest building a new pc in parallel. Install your OS, Driver, and copy Sage over. Tweak it to where you want it, then swap out the old for the new and finish off Sage with your tuners if they aren't network based.

If you swap out the motherboard like you are thinking, the CPU may be the biggest headache. If you are going from a single to multicore the OS may not like that.

[reggie14]

I was in a similar situation about a year ago. I had a Sage system that had been carefully pieced together over several years. I maybe didn't have quite as many things running on it, but I did have Sage, Gemstone, USB-UIRT, SageDCT running on it. But, I'm pretty sure the motherboard on it was dying.

I was pretty worried about starting from scratch. I did various little tweaks, fixes, and customizations over the years, and the previous time I rebuilt the server it didn't exactly go smoothly. I was really tempted to swap motherboards, but ultimately decided to rebuild the OS, but try to carry over the applications as best I could (by copying over directories).

It went surprisingly well, actually. I described what I did at a high level in this thread.

[valnar]

I'm going to give it a shot. There are too many customizations I don't remember. It's going from a Lynnfield (multicore) to a newer Haswell. I need it mostly for Plex transcoding. As others have pointed out, Windows 7 does a better job than XP in that respect. I'll uninstall older NIC, Display and sound drivers when I shutdown. Do a backup first of course.

[will]

Originally Posted by valnar

I'm going to give it a shot.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

[valnar]

Ordered the ASUS Q87M-E so I can take advantage of (ie. figure out) how the whole Intel AMT/vPro thing works and be able to remote control my PC at the BIOS level.

The other push was I no longer need my analog PCI tuners since COX removed those so I don't need the PCI slots either. I can get a mATX board this time.

[valnar]

It went smoothly. No problems at all after reinstalling drivers. So much faster now...