New motherboard without reinstalling Windows?

[i want a laptop]

I have this - http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/mb/content.php?S_ID=370

It's a piece.

I just purchased this - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138140

Now as you can imagine, I DO NOT want to completely format and reinstall windows, who would? How can I go about swapping out motherboards and getting Windows XP SP3 back up and running with minimal effort on this new motherboard?

 

[Atomic Rooster]

You can use this method of transferring the drive to a new system:

The first thing to do is ensure Windows is in a state where it can work on the new system. In the case of 2000 and XP, this just means that it has to be able to access the hard drives.

To do this, replace the Bus Master drivers with standard generic drivers, as seen below. The drivers you need to be working on are found in Device Manager under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers". Ignore the Primary and Secondary, go for the other one. nForce users will only see one entry per controller.

If you're changing chipset (think in terms of drivers - Drivers for the VIA KT133 work fine with a KT400, but drivers for i815 won't work at all with an AMD760MPX), then you'll want to knock out the AGP drivers too to avoid video problems after the switch. Either uninstall them from the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs or, in the case of VIA's 4in1, from the driver installation program. If you have neither (ie. SiS, ALi) or just can't be bothered, then observe the illustration below.

The standard PCI to PCI bridge disables everything AGP, but also makes sure that old AGP drivers aren't around to screw your system up.

You should be good to go now, but it's worth it to do some more cleaning up. Remove both USB controllers (don't do this if you have a USB keyboard/mouse, duh) and uninstall your display drivers. Also uninstall any other non-critical drivers from the Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, or any other option your driver installer has. They'll need to be reinstalled anyway, since Windows has to reinstall devices if they change INT# lines and they will.

As originally posted here: Swapping your board without so much as a reinstall

I've used this method a few times with great success.

 

[i want a laptop]

What about drivers for my current onboard sound card and such? Won't those try to work when I get the new mobo connected and they not work because of the different motherboard hardware?

 

[Atomic Rooster]

You will need to uninstall all your current drivers before doing the swap. Then once you have it up and running, you'll need to reinstall all your drivers such as the motherboard and graphics.

 

[i want a laptop]

Here's another issue I have. I installed XP first. Then I installed 7 "in front" of XP. (This is all on my current motherboard) So when I boot up, it asks me if I want to go into Windows 7, I hit other operating systems, then it takes me to Windows, so clearly Windows 7 is controlling my boot process first. Will following these steps work for XP but maybe 7 will not work with this new motherboard? I don't care about 7 anymore, and would like to uninstall it to be honest, but really I wouldn't care if I kept it just so long as I can get to the XP bootup with my new motherboard.

 

[1Nation]

I have this - http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/mb/content.php?S_ID=370

It's a piece.

I just purchased this - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138140

Now as you can imagine, I DO NOT want to completely format and reinstall windows, who would? How can I go about swapping out motherboards and getting Windows XP SP3 back up and running with minimal effort on this new motherboard?

Since they are made by the same company it may be like an ASUS where it just automatically detects the last boards settings and works. idk. go with post 1 to be on the safe side.