Motherboard Swap on dual-boot Win7/XP system?

I hope this is the correct forum. I had trouble deciding whether to put this post here or in the hardware section. I decided for here because ultimately it will most likely deal with OS installation.

I have a very stable system running 64-bit Win7 and 32-bit XP. I want to keep XP for compatibility reasons with some older hardware I still use often. I have XP installed on one hard drive and Win7 installed on another. When I installed Win7, I just went with the option for it to install a boot manager, and have been using that one ever since to dual boot my system. Nothing special, but it works.

The current motherboard is an ASUS model, and has always had problems with the USB section (it took me quite a while to realize it was a motherboard problem, though). Then it began to develop problems reading the DVD drive several months after I installed it (back when it was only an XP system). Once again, not suspecting the motherboard, I replaced the DVD drive, thinking it had gone bad -- it hadn't, works fine in another system. And pretty soon thereafter the current drive began to work sporadically, and now doesn't work at all. Same as before.

This ASUS mb has a 3-year warranty, and it's not quite 2 years old. So, I should probably just suck it up and jump through the dozen or so hoops they toss in your path to get the mb repaired/replaced. Still, I'm guessing that if I'm successful, I may end up with a mb that is different enough from the one I have now where it's gonna break Win7 and XP.

I went through this when I originally replaced the motherboard, and ended up having to completely reinstall XP, reactivate it, and then d/l all the updates. I guess I'll be looking at having to do this now for both OSes, eh? If I have to reinstall both OSes, I'm thinking that I should install XP first, then Win7, mostly to preserve the dual-boot capabilty?

If I don't get satisfaction from ASUS, I'll probably just drop back 10 and punt, and go with a new mb. I'm gonna try to avoid this though because it's getting harder and harder to find mbs with PCI slots (I need three). I guess if I do this, it will probably amount to the same amount of work as if ASUS sends me a board that is substantially different from the old one.

So, if you have any recommendations as to how I should proceed, I'd appreciate them. Especially if there is any possible way I can avoid having to go through the PITA of doing fresh installs, d/l'ing all the updates, and then re-activating the OSes.

Thanks!

You may need to SysPrep the Win7 installation, then run a booted Repair Install on XP: Repair Windows XP - How To Perform a Repair Installation of Windows XP - Part 1 of 2

Nice work. Thanks for reporting back.

I know this is an old post but was wondering if you used sysprep on the XP and Win7 partitions or just replaced the hardware and crossed your fingers?

My situation:
I've got a dual boot system XP Pro and Win7 Home Prem. Currently I use XP more than Win7 because I've built it up with various software and utilities over the years and don't wish to recreate it... It's my "do everything machine".. I've got several others with Win7 only that are used for gaming, server etc... but this machine is my goto machine when I'm supporting people and "getting work done". When I do upgrades I roll the hardware down and this system is in line for a motherboard that came out of my highend system. Its MB will then go into a system for my Mom. I've been dragging my feet on this since it's complicated with a dual boot setup. When I upgraded my Win7 game system I tried the "replace and cross your fingers" method and ended up reinstalling Win7 (not a big deal since I use steam for games). Data loss isn't the issue for me... it's identification of all the "crap" I've come to depend on but don't use on a daily basis and might not even remember I have until I need it.

You can adjust XP to new hardware using an XP Repair Install if it will run, or by SysPrepping on the old hardware first.

Be sure to back up an image first, using Win7 backup imaging. A separate XP image can be backed up using Acronis' superior cloning/imaging app which comes free with any WD or Seagate HD in the mix, or using free Macrium - Image your system.

Other options include using Acronis True Image with Universal Restore for both XP and Win7, or booting Paragon Adaptive Restore CD on the new hardware to adjust the OS's.