Moving existing Windows XP Install from AMD nForce3 to Intel P35
 

Quite a bit of time ago I build an AMD Athlon 3000+ system with nForce3 mainboard. With the increased footprint of applications and resource hungry background processes, the system was getting a bit sluggish. Also 720p and 1080p content would not play fluently at all. Time to upgrade, bought Asus P5K and E8400 / 2Gb some time ago to replace MSI nForce3 and A64 3000+ / 1Gb.

There are a few sites on the web which can help you with these system moves, but even the most detailed of them http://www.theeldergeek.com/replace_motherboard.htm is quite dated and doesn't cover all bases.

So did I get a nice BlueScreenOfDeath?

Yay!

successfully transfered my Windows XP install to new Intel P35 system. Steps taken.. the challenge is device drivers for storage controllers and in my case also the location of the Windows install; my Windows Install:

- C: 200Gb HDD1 DATA + BOOTFILES
- E: 40GB Partition on HDD2 (Bootfiles)
- H: 40GB Partition on HDD2 (System & Windows files)

I cloned 80GB maxtor to 250Gb Seagate. Hooked up Seagate instead of Maxtor and started A64 PC. When arriving at Windows Logon screen, enter username/password; system starts logging on... halfway through "saving settings, logging off". With a copy of the XP install on the same machine XP did not let me logon... great.

Troubleshooting led me to a bunch of virus errors which replace windows logon loader userinit.dll; but that was of no use to me. I suspected the error had something to do with the fact that the windows install was on H: drive. Stumbled upon registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices .. booted another system, was able to remotely connect to the "broken" machine, remote registry edited the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices and removed all entries there. Rebooted system, waited a good 5min then I was able to reconnect again. The machine had now only populated C D E F G drives, aha! looking closer at the registry setting I spotted the error and created a new Binary key \DosDevices\H: removed the invalid "G". Rebooted system. yes able to logon! (more info http://www.petri.co.il/change_system...windows_xp.htm)

Ok so now I have a working copy of my Windows XP install. Next step is to remove all chipset specific drivers, in this case with MSI nForce3 motherboard it means NVIDIA chipset drivers, storage drivers, PCI controller, network manager, also uninstalled MSI Core center and NVIDIA display adapters. Do note that I did not reboot the machine when asked.

Last action I took was then to download Intel P35 chipset drivers and latest NVIDIA display drivers; put them on the desktop. Shut down Athlon 64 system. Transfer HDD to newly build Asus P5K + E8400 + 2Gb system; boot up... cross fingers... boot directly to Windows :) log on, install system drivers... reboot a few times. Install other hardware from A64 system (Creative Audigy 2 and DVD writer). Final reboot. Yup it works:)

1080p content now plays at 30% CPU usage, Outlook, Firefox, MP3 are all very snappy. And 9800 GTX should be able to push a bit more pixels then the previous 6600 GT AGP ;-D
Only downside is related to Asus P5K motherboard, only one PS/2 connector at the back... my KVM needs two :/

In short, I have for sale a very quiet Athlon 64 3000+ (Thermalright HR-01 passive) / 1Gb / 80gb HDD / 6600 GT AGP (Zalman) / PSU in quiet case. Any takers?;)

Good for the kids, you only have to start making some :p

got a buyer for the A64 system, it's dead quiet so happy people all around :)