Using a New Motherboard with Windows 7 on an Old Hard Drive

[AH1]

Hello,

My old motherboard died without my having the ability to delete the old drivers off of the hard drive. I have installed a new motherboard and am attempting to boot into the old hard drive, however, Windows 7 will simply start up, try to load the files, and then enter a restart loop.

I know why this is happening. It cannot find the appropiate files to boot off the hard drive because the new motherboard is conflicting with the old drivers on the old hard drive.

I have attempted to boot off the Windows 7 disc and do a repair, however, it does not work. Right now I am dual-booting from a secondary hard drive, and I have full access to the old hard drive.

Basically, I need to manually delete the old drivers from the old hard drive, or find some way to install the new drivers on it whilst booting from the secondary drive. (In other words, I'm booting off D:\ and I'd like to install drivers whilst on D:\ to C:\)

How can I do this?

Things I will NOT do, and will not even consider, so please don't tell me to:
I will not wipe my old hard drive. The programs and data on it are too valuable. And while the data is easily saved, the programs are not and I'd have to reinstall. Some of the programs were obtained when I was in college and my college distributed free programs by download. Now that I am no longer in college, I'd have to pay hundreds of dollars for replacements (for example, Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Symantec Antivirus).

So to repeat, I will NOT consider a hard drive format and fresh install.

I am, however, willing to do any steps to manually delete or install new drivers, no matter how complex or time consuming the steps are. It is worth it to me. All I need to do is get rid of those old drivers. If someone could tell me how, I'd be greatful.

Specifications:
Intel Core 2 Duo Wolfdale 3.2ghz
4gb RAM
1000w PSU
ATI HD4650 Graphics
Windows 7 64-bit

[chrishea]

Have a look at this for starters:

http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread142082.html

[caperjack]

Have a look at this for starters:

http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread142082.html

most if not all info in that link is about winxp and not win7 ,and most of the help in the thread or links in the thread are not info releated to when your orignal board is a dead board ,like in the situation !
having said that i don't recall ever getting it to work for me with a brokem MB,maybe once when the new boards chipset was the same as broken one .
i would think it may be possiable with the lates UBCD/or hirens bcd .i have one here somewhere that has winxp lite on it that may get you in to where you could uninstall chipset drivers and stuff .but only used it once and not sure even what one it is that can boot to live winxp lite ,

hirens= http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

ubcd= http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

or live linux cd .= http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

good luck

[caperjack]

found the disk i had and it was Hirens Boot cd no sure if the link i provide to hirens has the one with the mini xp ,someone gave me the disk i have ,.that had what is refered to as mini winxp ,and when i boot to i have access to my harddrive and was able to move throught the windows folder and others ,except mydocuments .
so if you know the drivers and where they might be you maybe able to remove them ,not sure it will get you what you are trying to achieve though

[paulusmilllne]

It is possible i think to take a disk image of your old drive using Aconis True Image home, then clone to another drive without the drivers, this would solve your problem i think, as win7 will install its own so it will work, then install the proper drivers for your motherboard. Not as complex as it sounds, but would save you buying any other software again. Let me know what you think.

[Zada]

I have successfully done this (6/10/2010), however my success may not work for all users.

Dead Mobo Hardware:
OS: Win 7U
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4H
Ram: 8 gigs ddr2
HD0: 1 seagate 1.5 TB Primary
Hd1: 1 seagate 1.0 TB secondary
Nvidia gtx 275 Graphics (mobo also had onboard drivers)

New Mobo:
OS: Same Win 7U
Asus m498TD EV0
Ram: 4 Gigs ddr3
Hd0: Same 1.5 primary
Hd1: Same 1.0 secondary

(* First warning, be sure the HD settings are the same, if you used AHCI, use the same or default settings. If you did not use AHCI on the first mobo then DO NOT USE AHCI on the new one *)

Upon first try the system appeared to load but then locked on the Windows splash screen. Tried to boot into safe mode, but the same outcome. Booted safemode/command prompt and saw that the ATI PCIE video driver was trying to load. Since the new mobo was Nvidia based, this was problematic.

Fix was quick for me.

1. Wrote down the video driver name - (something like atipcie.sys)

2, Booted with Bartpc (or anyother utility that will let you boot and edit the NTFS partition)

3. Deleted the ati driver

4. Booted the drives on the new mobo.

5. installed new chipset drivers for the Asus.

This worked for me. I also had an MSI mobo but I had to copy vga.sys to the ATIpcie.sys to get this to work. Either way, Windows 7 was flexible enough to allow the new drivers to be loaded for the new mobo.

Hope this works for someone, Good luck!

Z.

[cavillas]

Have you thought about changing the hard drives so that D becomes C and C becomes d, then you can install Windows 7 on the "new" c drive and still access your old documents from the old c drive (now d)

[dcoetzee]

I Know this is an old post,
But I thought id share my experience incase anyone else is looking for a solution to this issue,
1. get a Hirens boot cd
2. boot into the mini xp Provided on Hirens
3.
In the hirens utilities, Find registry tools, and click on FIX hdd controller
It launches a dos window, where you select your target root, and choose repair.
It seems to delete the old driver out of current control set 00 from your registry, and replace it with generic version.

Worked like a charm for me!

[TheFixer]

dcoetzee, this worked perfectly for me just now - I changed a faulty Gigabyte board for the identical model, and got this crap behaviour from win 7. No amount of windows 7 repairing made any difference, and easy transfer is only easy if the system is running - hardly useful in these circumstances. Thank goodness for Hirens, and many thanks for your post!
Surely this behaviour of win 7 could not be "by design"? - you bet your bottom dollar that it is. Remember that win98 would practically reinstall itself when you changed mainboard? How could MS have lost this capability? Answer: They didn't lose it at all.
:)

[pcfresh]

Not to sure whether this has been solved or not but from my experience the main problem is the cpu architecture. If for example your old system was AMD or old intel processors (meaning pre Pentium 4) then you have buckleys....I have on numerous occasions put a preloaded Win 7 HDD into various PCs to trouble shoot and have had no problems.

Hope that this helps.

[TheFixer]

No, it was't a different platform, far from it!

A customer very recently upgraded to a corei3 on a gigabyte h61m-d2-b3 mainboard (new system).
Just 3 weeks after purchase, a storm spiked the ethernet port on the mb via the modem. Everything else was working satisfactorily. I advised changing mainboard instead of installing a nic as the mb is only $71 and changing it goes a long way to avoiding late appearing storm effects.

Identical mainboard - should have been a simple swap (I think that they were even the same production run). But no, windows crashed when starting, startup repair was useless, and a clean install on a workshop drive in the system produced perfect operation, so it was not undiscovered storm damage. More likely it was MS by accident or design... I'll leave the choice to you!

After removing the driver, win 7 booted successfully and then automatically reinstalled the driver with no assistance from me! It then pronounced itself satisfied (clean device manager), and has operated flawlessly since.
Don't you just love MS? (NO)

[pcfresh]

Not doubting you but never had that problem.....but in saying that we are talking MS

[Pimpledick]

Just used the Hirens Boot CD 13.1 following advice above - worked perfectly!

[Joculus]

An infinite quantity of thanx to you all for the info here. Hiren's bootcd, the registry fix for HD controller... everything!! Worked just as described for Vista and saved my bacon!! Yet another MB change success!

[drdeathly]

Sadly this didn't work for me.. I LOVE Hirens on a USB stick though, it is amazing! I ran FIX HDC and ran both options Target Root and Motherboard Drivers - was this a mistake? On reboot startup still fails and sends me into Win7 Startup Repair which claimed to succeed this time but upon reboot startup still fails. Sigh. Is there a way to copy my motherboard drivers into the Win7 Windows directory from the Hirens Mini XP?

Failing this I'm going to have to figure out how to reinstall Win7 from a USB stick as my new mobo lacks IDE and my DVD drive is IDE... oops.

DrD

[davebaron]

I know this is an old thread and you probably have your computer working after a re-install, but thought I would answer it for future readers who need the solution.

It is indeed possible to transfer your installation and it is not difficult at all!

There is NO need to reinstall. If you would like to keep your current configuration and applications, use sysprep.exe to prepare your Windows installation for the new hardware by entering the System Out of Box Experience. Sysprep will strip your installation of all drivers an detect and install the new ones on your first boot with the new hardware.

Here is a great tutorial at SevenForums. Follow these directions precisely and you will have no problems at all. (Do an image backup of your hard drive before starting to be safe)

If you recieve a fatal error when running sysprep, use msconfig and disable all startup items, restart your computer and then try again.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html

When complete you will need to reactivate windows with a qualifying license.

Hope this helps!

Thanks

[caperjack]

I know this is an old thread and you probably have your computer working after a re-install, but thought I would answer it for future readers who need the solution.

It is indeed possible to transfer your installation and it is not difficult at all!

There is NO need to reinstall. If you would like to keep your current configuration and applications, use sysprep.exe to prepare your Windows installation for the new hardware by entering the System Out of Box Experience. Sysprep will strip your installation of all drivers an detect and install the new ones on your first boot with the new hardware.

Here is a great tutorial at SevenForums. Follow these directions precisely and you will have no problems at all. (Do an image backup of your hard drive before starting to be safe)

If you recieve a fatal error when running sysprep, use msconfig and disable all startup items, restart your computer and then try again.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html

When complete you will need to reactivate windows with a qualifying license.

Hope this helps!

Thanks

will work im sure ,but i will go back to original poster as i have not read all the rest ,OP's motherboard is dead so no way he can sys prep tool

[davebaron]

will work im sure ,but i will go back to original poster as i have not read all the rest ,OP's motherboard is dead so no way he can sys prep tool

My goodness, I guess I should read things a little closer before posting a response. In this case, what I would do is try to find a someone with a system that has the SAME board, remove any additional hardware and boot it and continue with sysprep. If it was that important to me, I would even go as far as looking for one used on E-bay that is functional. Sure would beat the cost of re-purchasing all the software.

This post is fairly old so I doubt he is still in need of help. Also, not knowing the make of the board it is hard to estimate a price, but this is a very viable option for OP if he still NEEDS his machine to boot off of this drive.

For future reference, it would always be a good idea to sysprep any windows installation and make an image just incase we were to run into problems like OP's. The problem with that is a lot of us dont think about backups and image creation until its too late!

My, apologies for the irrelevant post!

[caperjack]

For future reference, it would always be a good idea to sysprep any windows installation and make an image just incase we were to run into problems like OP's. The problem with that is a lot of us dont think about backups and image creation until its too late!

My, apologies for the irrelevant post!

no need to apologize ,my post was not to say it was irrelevent info ,just wasn't relevant to OP.
it maybe relevant to some of the other posters, plus good info in link for someone who comes along with a working computer and they want to transfer there old drive to it

The problem with that is a lot of us dont think about backups and image creation until its too late!

most computer owners would not even know that they may someday need or want to do this to there new computer in case something happens down the road

you link was a good one and i will go study it to see if i can maybe use it someday
thank you

[ThomasAnderson]

well, AH1
U need to first boot from old drive, & start windows in safe mode.
After u log In safe mode U need to uninstall all ur old mother board driver, i.e. ur VGA, Audio, Chipset etc. after it restart & boot from windows 7 DVD & at the time installaton ask for fresh or upgarate.
Choose upgrade, ater it finished ur windows is now able to run from ur new Board.

[hrki_98]

dcoetzee, you are my man :)
great job, this has solved my problem, and I repaired Windows after changing MB.

Many thanx from Croatia

[salpula]

just chiming in to say that a friend who runs a business had his office pc die. when i sold him a new one he wanted to use the old drive.

The hirens bootcd method of loading minixp, running fix hdc, then reboot to safe mode method worked perfectly.

[evadelparaiso]

Same problem, installing clone or original hd to a new hardware, MSI motherboard its the new one. Hirens resolve the problem. Thanks in advance.
Eva

[tower-99]

Turning off AHCI in the BIOS was enough to get Windows starting for me. I then reenabled it using the procedure described here:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=354428

I changed pretty much everything in the system, so I guess this will work in many other cases too.

Old system: Athlon 64 CPU, NVIDIA nForce 500 Ultra chipset, 2GB DDR2 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 6200 graphics card.
New system: Core i3-2120 CPU, Intel H61 Express Chipset, 8GB DDR3 RAM, integrated Intel graphics.

I then activated Windows (which worked via the normal online method), then cloned the hard disk and upgraded that too.

The Hirens Boot CD registry reset method didn't work for me, but Hirens was useful for the disk clone.

Thanks to Zada for pointing out the importance of using a matching AHCI setting.

[setu4993]

Hello there,

Tried the Hiren's BootCD solution to the same problem.

Win7 goes back to 'Startup Repair'. Any suggestions over what can be the issue and how to get over it?

Thanks.

[dennis93q]

I'm having this SAME PROBLEM. Where in HIREN's BootCD is the "Registry Tools?" I'm in BootCD 15.1 - is it there by launching Windows XP Rebuild or Windows 7 Portable? HELP!

[kaimaster1045]

Hi Guys

I've been looking all over the net for a quick fix and always ran into a brick wall. Moving a hard drive from one WORKING pc to another WORKING pc was easy enough by just replacing the driver in Device Manager with the Standard Dual IDE.

My problem came when I had a DEAD pc and had to replace the Motherboard and got the dreaded BSOD. I had this problem today again and after searching the net again I found a solution and created an easy way to fix this. The instructions are as follows:

Things you'll need:

CD or USB Boot Key with Windows Rescue Disk / BartPE / WinPE / Windows 7 Setup CD (Any will do as all we need is a command prompt and the REG.EXE file)

Notepad to create 2 files

fixide.bat

Cut and paste the following into it:

@echo off
echo Making a backup of your SYSTEM file
copy "C:\windows\system32\config\system" "C:\windows\system32\config\system.bak"
echo Too proceed
pause
reg.exe load HKLM\REMOTE "C:\windows\system32\config\system"
echo If you get an error press CTRL-C to exit or
pause
reg.exe import fixide.reg
echo If you get an error press CTRL-C to exit or
pause
reg.exe unload HKLM\REMOTE
echo All done...
pause

End of file

fixide.reg

Cut and paste the following into it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\primary_ide_channel]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="atapi"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\secondary_ide_channel]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="atapi"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase*pnp0600]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="atapi"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase*azt0502]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="atapi"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\gendisk]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="disk"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#cc_0101]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_0e11&dev_ae33]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1039&dev_0601]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1039&dev_5513]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-1!CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1042&dev_1000]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_105a&dev_4d33]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1095&dev_0640]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1095&dev_0646]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1097&dev_0038]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_10ad&dev_0001]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_10ad&dev_0150]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_10b9&dev_5215]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_10b9&dev_5219]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_10b9&dev_5229]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1106&dev_0571]
"Service"="pciide"
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_1222]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="intelide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_1230]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="intelide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2411]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="intelide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2421]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="intelide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_7010]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="intelide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_7111]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="intelide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_7199]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="intelide"

;Add driver for Atapi (requires atapi.sys in drivers directory)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Services\atapi]
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"Group"="SCSI miniport"
"Start"=dword:00000000
"Tag"=dword:00000019
"Type"=dword:00000001
"DisplayName"="Standard IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller"
"ImagePath"=hex(2):53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,44,00,\
52,00,49,00,56,00,45,00,52,00,53,00,5c,00,61,00,74,00,61,00,70,00,69,00,2e,\
00,73,00,79,00,73,00,00,00

;Add driver for intelide (requires intelide.sys in drivers directory)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Services\IntelIde]
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"Group"="System Bus Extender"
"Start"=dword:00000000
"Tag"=dword:00000004
"Type"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"=hex(2):53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,44,00,\
52,00,49,00,56,00,45,00,52,00,53,00,5c,00,69,00,6e,00,74,00,65,00,6c,00,69,\
00,64,00,65,00,2e,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,00,00

;Add driver for pciide (requires pciide.sys and pciidex.sys in drivers directory)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REMOTE\ControlSet001\Services\PCIIde]
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"Group"="System Bus Extender"
"Start"=dword:00000000
"Tag"=dword:00000003
"Type"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"=hex(2):53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,44,00,\
52,00,49,00,56,00,45,00,52,00,53,00,5c,00,70,00,63,00,69,00,69,00,64,00,65,\
00,2e,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,00,00

End of file

INSTRUCTIONS:

I'm not going into details how to make these disks etc, just search the net.

For this SOLUTION I'll be using a Windows 7 Setup CD

1.) Create the above two files and copy them to your USB Key or CD

2.) Boot from your CD or USB Key and get to a command prompt (Windows 7 Setup CD SHIFT-F10)

3.) Run fixide.bat

4.) Restart your PC

5.) Done

If this didn't work, do the following:

1.) Run REGEDIT from a command prompt

2.) Click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

3.) Click on FILE, LOAD HIVE

4.) Browse to c:\windows\system32\config and select SYSTEM file

5.) Type REMOTE into the Inut Box

A REMOTE key will now show under HKLM

6.) Click on FILE, IMPORT and select your fixide.reg file

7.) After SUCCESSFUL IMPORT, Click on FILE, UNLOAD HIVE >>VERY IMPORTANT

8.) Reboot

I hope this will help other people.

This worked for me on Windows XP and Windows 7

DISCLAIMER

Please note that these instructions are given "AS IS" and I cannot be held responsible for any damage it may cause or loss of data.

Regards

Kai

[kaimaster1045]

Sorry Guys for the previous long post, but here's the file attached....

Regards

Kai

[kevin2s]

You can easily use New Keyboard for old motherboard as you just have to install some drivers and your work is finished.

[bwhurd]

WOW!! I have looked everywhere for this info, and I can't believe this has been so hard to find. May not have been relevant to OP, but @davebaron's link with explanation on how to use sysprep.exe is sooooo much easier than many alternative's. Make a backup before doing this, because it sounds like problems are not out of the question. Maybe moderator won't like this, but I think the info from method 1 in that link is worth copying and pasting here. VERY SIMPLE:

Use this method if you:
a) Change other hardware components but keep your old HD containing Windows 7

b) Move the HD containing Windows 7 to another computer
______________
STEPS:
Before installing new hardware, boot Windows 7 normally, and Run Command Prompt as administrator

[1] Type to Command Prompt: %windir%\System32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe, and hit Enter
.
[2] In sysprep dialog that opens, choose System Cleanup Action as Enter System Out-of-Box-Experience (OOBE), select Generalize, select Shutdown Options Shutdown. Click OK
.
[3] Sysprep generalizes now your Windows 7 setup and shuts down your computer. Do not run any other programs during this phase!
.
[4] Switch the main power of your PC off and install the new hardware OR dismount the hard disk(s) and mount it (them) to a new computer
Boot the PC from sysprep generalized hard disk. You will notice Windows booting as if it was the first boot after installation, installing default drivers and updating registry. One or two reboots are needed, depending on your system specifications
.
[5] When Windows finally boots up, you will need to enter all information as if this really was a new, fresh installation
.
[6] Because your old user profiles already exist, Windows does not accept your normal username, but instead you have to create a new temporary user. I use username Test for this purpose
.
[7] When login screen appears, choose your old user account to login
.
[8] Windows boots now to default OOBE first boot desktop, with default 800*600 resolution and default theme. All your installed applications are there, as well as your old user profiles and folders. Windows has installed the default drivers for your setup, you can update them if needed
.
[8] Go to Control Panel > User Accounts and delete the temporary user account (in this case Test) that you just created