Hi guys... back again.
This isn't exactly a ghost question but I figured one of you may have an answer for me.  I'm replacing my current motherboard with another one that is similar and was wondering if I can just reinstall the hard drives or do I have to reformat and reinstall all my programs... yuk!

My current board is an Asus P4S533 with the SiS645DX and SiS 961B chipsets.  The new board is an Asus P4S800D-X with the SiS 655FX and SiS 964 Chipsets.

I'm running Windows XP-Hm SP2.  Thanks for the help.

Mac

Mac, good to hear from you again.

In Rad's second link I'd consider this approach.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=11460...

You have everything to gain and nothing to lose. If it doesn't work then you will have to reinstall Windows.

Try This:from another Forum:
question
looking for someone with expertise in swapping hard drives in xp because i've heard that it cant be done. i have about 170gb worth of data i cant afford to lose and am thinking of upgrading my system, a new motherboard, cpu, memory and dvd-writer. i will be using the same psu, case and floppy. if i understand correctly, after installing these components, my hard drive will fail to boot. why is this and is there anything that can be done to overcome this? i also have made a lot of tweaks to my xp configuration, and would hate to have to start again.
Poque's Answer
Well general opinion is that it cant be done but I've done it!
Before attempting it I would seriously consider backing up the data to other media first just in case it doesn't work.
Basically once you have all the hardware setup you boot up off an xp cd and choose the option to install windows. Setup will then see you already have windows on the drive and will ask if you want to run a repair, in which case you do. Now here's where it gets tricky. You'll eventually encounter and error saying "GetIUMs" which it will not bypass no matter what you click on. Hold shift + f10 keys down and a black window will appear. In that window type taskmgr.exe and press enter. The task manager will appear and then you'll see under applications the error window ( can't remember exactly what it is called but looks pretty obvious) . Highlight it and then click end task , then close the black command prompt window and the installation should continue.
Only recommended for the brave and like I said before I would certainly consider backing up the important data on there before attempting.

Regards Ben