Replacing a motherboard (?)

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

>>and make a backup of the current OS parititon.

Can you explain how to make this backup?
My thinking would be to put the drive in another pc as a secondary...
no problem... and then just copy the entire "c" partition (just the os
and a few applications on a few gigs, all data on separate partition).
I suppose I could put all of those copied files in a directory on the
"d" partition, and just copy/paste from there?

I would have no problem doing this, if I was pretty sure I could just
reverse the process if need be, and be right back where I started...
would that work?

I also have a brand new 80gig drive still in the box (the existing
drive is 80 gig, though not same brand) and could just clone the whole
drive first...hmmm... ?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

well sh!$... I just called the company and they do not have another one
just like it.
SO.... I am starting over with the board from my friend, which means I
will
1) back up the entire drive - ghost or something
2) replace the motherboard/cpu, with everything else just as it was
3) boot up and see what happens.
4) redo what needs to be redone, etc, ad nauseum...

I am trying to avoid a full windows reinstall, and would like to keep
my main application, SONAR audio recording, just as it is.

If I am just swapping mainboards, you think I can get away with just a
'repair' install?

Thanks for all of your help. Too bad that motherboard was a dud, this
would all have been so simple!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On 24 Jun 2005 07:34:40 -0700, "Michael 23"
<zionblue@gmail.com> wrote:

>>>and make a backup of the current OS parititon.
>
>Can you explain how to make this backup?

I was thinking along the lines of Ghost, DriveImage, or the
HDD manufacturer's drive-cloning utility (which almost any
offer from their website if you didn't get it in a
retail-packaged drive. Otherwise, it may depend on your
needs. I don't know how much tweaking you've done but at
a certain point I'd have to think it best to just redo that
from scratch.


>My thinking would be to put the drive in another pc as a secondary...
>no problem... and then just copy the entire "c" partition (just the os
>and a few applications on a few gigs, all data on separate partition).
>I suppose I could put all of those copied files in a directory on the
>"d" partition, and just copy/paste from there?

Sure, that's one option.


>
>I would have no problem doing this, if I was pretty sure I could just
>reverse the process if need be, and be right back where I started...
>would that work?

I've not tried it quite like that, on the surface it seems
like it might work but I can't guarantee it.

Another thing you might consider doing is to open up
regedit and export some registry keys, that they might be
merged into the new OS later in certain situations. For
example,

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE
HKEY_USERS

What I mean is that if you were to end up doing a clean
install, having this data to merge into the registry might
speed up the retweaking process. By doing a repair install
the majority of the above should be retained. However,
after mergining these, if you then installed applications,
you might find they overwrote the merged settings- so you'd
have to re-merge them... I'm already getting into too much
detail, not knowing exactly what you have tweaked nor being
able to foresee what will need retweaked... depending on how
this plays out.


>
>I also have a brand new 80gig drive still in the box (the existing
>drive is 80 gig, though not same brand) and could just clone the whole
>drive first...hmmm... ?

yes that might be a good idea

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On 24 Jun 2005 11:25:06 -0700, "Michael 23"
<zionblue@gmail.com> wrote:

>well sh!$... I just called the company and they do not have another one
>just like it.
>SO.... I am starting over with the board from my friend, which means I
>will
>1) back up the entire drive - ghost or something
>2) replace the motherboard/cpu, with everything else just as it was
>3) boot up and see what happens.
>4) redo what needs to be redone, etc, ad nauseum...
>
>I am trying to avoid a full windows reinstall, and would like to keep
>my main application, SONAR audio recording, just as it is.
>
>If I am just swapping mainboards, you think I can get away with just a
>'repair' install?

It's likely, try it and see (after making the OS partition
backup).

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

NEW FUN PROBLEM!
(also going to post in new thread...)

Well, I ended up installing the new mobo, and formatting the C
partition. The repair install didnt seem to take - might have been me,
whatever.

Anyway, the machine is now up and running with a matsonic mobo #
ms8308ep(266)

Installed winxphome, did the activation thing, all is well except... I
can boot once, no problem. Try to restart, and I cant get past the
windows loading screen.

What happens is this... windows xp starts to load, the little bar
scrolls across 2 or 3 times, and then the video goes out. PC seems to
be loading, can't tell for sure cause ctrl+alt+del does nothing, so I
dont really know.

Anyway, here is the clue: if I reset the bios (with the jumper by the
cmos) I can boot once just fine - I get the bios warning "CMOS memory
size wrong" and a choice for F1/setup or F2/load default and continue.

F2 does the trick, windows loads perfectly and I am in. But if I
restart, I go back to no video once windows starts to load.

I can boot up in safe mode no problem at any time. But I can only get
back to windows if I reset the CMOS (jumper).

This makes me think it is something in the bios... but what? What could
the setting be that would cause this???

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

>>Try flashing newest bios, if system is stable outside of
windows.

I am not sure how to do this. I dl'd a newer bios version, but have no
clue what to do with it.

btw, this machine has no floppy, but I can make it boot from cd.

>>Could be a video driver problem, next boot to safe mode try
setting it to standard VGA. Disable or reduce any
video-relatd settings in bios (AGP settings if applicable).

I looked at the bios, and all I see is a setting for "pci" or "onboard
agp"... I am using onboard, but it was set to pci... however, no
change. :-(

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

I did... I tried both defaults actually... no luck.

but I think I got it now!

HAH!
Went into safe mode... uninstalled 'display adapter' in device manager,
and rebooted... 3 times now with no problems!

maybe I screwed something up with the matsonic vid driver... geesh.

anyway, thank you very much for your help & suggestions... fingers
crossed, but so far all seems well.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

HAH!
Went into safe mode... uninstalled 'display adapter' in device manager,
and rebooted... 3 times now with no problems!

maybe I screwed something up with the matsonic vid driver... geesh.

anyway, thank you very much for your help & suggestions... fingers
crossed, but so far all seems well.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Thanks for the instructions!
I think I will not fix what is not broken at this point, and move ahead
with reinstalling all my apps, settings, etc, etc...

Your input and support has been invaluable, thanks very much.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On 26 Jun 2005 21:17:43 -0700, "Michael 23"
<zionblue@gmail.com> wrote:

>NEW FUN PROBLEM!
>(also going to post in new thread...)
>
>Well, I ended up installing the new mobo, and formatting the C
>partition. The repair install didnt seem to take - might have been me,
>whatever.
>
>Anyway, the machine is now up and running with a matsonic mobo #
>ms8308ep(266)
>
>Installed winxphome, did the activation thing, all is well except... I
>can boot once, no problem. Try to restart, and I cant get past the
>windows loading screen.
>
>What happens is this... windows xp starts to load, the little bar
>scrolls across 2 or 3 times, and then the video goes out. PC seems to
>be loading, can't tell for sure cause ctrl+alt+del does nothing, so I
>dont really know.

Could be a video driver problem, next boot to safe mode try
setting it to standard VGA. Disable or reduce any
video-relatd settings in bios (AGP settings if applicable).


>I can boot up in safe mode no problem at any time. But I can only get
>back to windows if I reset the CMOS (jumper).
>
>This makes me think it is something in the bios... but what? What could
>the setting be that would cause this???

Try flashing newest bios, if system is stable outside of
windows.

 

[Stephen]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On 26 Jun 2005 21:17:43 -0700, "Michael 23" <zionblue@gmail.com> had a
flock of green cheek conures squawk out:

>NEW FUN PROBLEM!
>(also going to post in new thread...)
>
>Well, I ended up installing the new mobo, and formatting the C
>partition. The repair install didnt seem to take - might have been me,
>whatever.
>
>Anyway, the machine is now up and running with a matsonic mobo #
>ms8308ep(266)
>
>Installed winxphome, did the activation thing, all is well except... I
>can boot once, no problem. Try to restart, and I cant get past the
>windows loading screen.
>
>What happens is this... windows xp starts to load, the little bar
>scrolls across 2 or 3 times, and then the video goes out. PC seems to
>be loading, can't tell for sure cause ctrl+alt+del does nothing, so I
>dont really know.
>
>Anyway, here is the clue: if I reset the bios (with the jumper by the
>cmos) I can boot once just fine - I get the bios warning "CMOS memory
>size wrong" and a choice for F1/setup or F2/load default and continue.
>
>F2 does the trick, windows loads perfectly and I am in. But if I
>restart, I go back to no video once windows starts to load.
>
>I can boot up in safe mode no problem at any time. But I can only get
>back to windows if I reset the CMOS (jumper).
>
>This makes me think it is something in the bios... but what? What could
>the setting be that would cause this???

Try using F1 next time and load the one of the defaults from the main
bios screen, then save the setting.

Stephen


--

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On 27 Jun 2005 08:39:22 -0700, "Michael 23"
<zionblue@gmail.com> wrote:

>>>Try flashing newest bios, if system is stable outside of
>windows.
>
>I am not sure how to do this. I dl'd a newer bios version, but have no
>clue what to do with it.
>
>btw, this machine has no floppy, but I can make it boot from cd.
>
>>>Could be a video driver problem, next boot to safe mode try
>setting it to standard VGA. Disable or reduce any
>video-relatd settings in bios (AGP settings if applicable).
>
>I looked at the bios, and all I see is a setting for "pci" or "onboard
>agp"... I am using onboard, but it was set to pci... however, no
>change. :-(

It seems you have it solved now, but it doesn't matter if
the bios is set to PCI or onboard so long as you don't also
have a 2nd display adapter installed- that settings only
determines which is the primary display when there are two.

To flash the bios you'd boot to DOS, either by the OS menu
(if applicable) or make a DOS boot CDR (or thumbdrive,
whatever you'd use to get to DOS). Then have the bios file
and the flasher file (also available from motherboard
manufacturer) on a *drive* you can access from DOS.

In other words if your HDD is NTFS, you'd have to put the
files on the CDR or wherever, but if your HDD has a FAT32
parititon, you could put them there... then execture the
flasher at the bios prompt, and depending on the flasher,
include the name of the bios after it. Google will turn up
details on it BUT it seems you don't need to flash the bios
and may be better off waiting until there is a need to do
so.