Hi guys,

My processor and motherboard got burned after a CPU fan died ( I have one of those cheapo emachines). Now that I need to buy new CPU&MB combo I decided to do the upgrade, buy P4 processor and better MB. Questions:

1. Should I be concerned with compatibility of the combo that I buy with the other stuff in the box (aside from power supply)?

2. Someone told me that, unless it is the exact same CPU and MB, I will have a problem with getting my data off my harddrive, in other words, I will have to reinstall OS (XP+slackware in my case) Is there any truth to this? I hope not cause that would screw me big time.

Thanks.

From my experience, what they told you is mostly correct. Linux may be more forgiving than Windows though. I've successfully moved my debian hard drive between boxes before. The move just installed different modules at boot time, and then I had to reconfigure stuff like X and I feel like I had to dink around with other things too. So far, so good, as I haven't had any real hardware or software blechs yet. Not sure about Slackware. Windows just wouldn't boot and I didn't bother trying to get it working again as it was an old Win95 install. It's just sitting there taking up space until I remove it...

Here's some tips on how to salvage the windows install.

http://www.duxcw.com/faq/win/move2K.htm
http://www.theeldergeek.com/move_harddrive.htm

Thanks for the reply. Well it looks like I am screwed cause I don't have a way to back up the data right now.

Were you able to access the data on your Win95 partition by mounting it on Debian partition?

Yeah, I could mount it fine, it just wouldn't boot. One way to backup data is to take out the drive and take it to a friends house. Boot it with Knoppix if you need to recover the linux data too (since they probably have winblows and it can't see linux filesystems.

Well if I can mount the partition and access files that way, my problem is solved, isn't it? I can burn CD with all the files I need saved, and then reinstall XP. Correct?

Sounds good to me. You might back up the data with Knoppix before you try getting your slack install going. That way if something goes wrong (like you accidentally overwrite the wrong partition) you'll have all your important files already.