Hi, I'm using GA-EP31-DS3L Gigabyte Main board. when i upgrade my main board to GA-Ep45-UD3LR and turn on my PC, windows server 2008 r2 Start but show blue screen with some technical error number. i have many programs and configuration on it, please suggest me, how i can upgrade my mainboard with out reinstall my windows server 2008 r2.

You can try a repair installation but its probably too big of a change to work. Regards, Dave Patrick .... Microsoft Certified Professional -Microsoft MVP [Windows]

Hello Kianian, You probably need to create a mini-setup image and then deploy it to new motherboard which saves all you existing application. Please go through articles below: 1. Automating the OOBE process during Windows Server 2008 Sysprep Mini-Setup http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2008/10/31/automating-the-oobe-process-during-windows-server-2008-sysprep-mini-setup.aspx 2. How to move a Windows installation to different hardware http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249694 Hope this helps you. Regards, Tilak IT Consultant

Formally, it is not supported to replace motherboard without reinstall system as drivers and structures are changed a lot. A repair install may help but cannot guarantee the result. Generally we will recommand to do a backup and restore to get things back.Shaon Shan| TechNet Subscriber Support in forum| If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com

Hi, I'm using GA-EP31-DS3L Gigabyte Main board. when i upgrade my main board to GA-Ep45-UD3LR and turn on my PC, windows server 2008 r2 Start but show blue screen with some technical error number. i have many programs and configuration on it, please suggest me, how i can upgrade my mainboard with out reinstall my windows server 2008 r2. Kianian, I'm sure you have moved on from this, but I just had a similar experience. I have a Win2K8 domain server that had a Gigabyte GA-KNS8 motherboard which for some reason gave out. I purchased a new model ASUS M4A785-M MB with an AMD Athlon II processor... completely different that what I had originally (Athlon 64). I installed the new MB and hooked everything up, and booted up first to the CMOS to get the hardware in line... I still use IDE drives for my primary and secondary, then set all the boot time configuration. When the machine rebooted, I went into Windows Server 2008 in SAFE MODE first and windows detected the different hardware and after a few minutes told me new drivers were installed, so I rebooted, this time in normal mode and Windows Server came up to my log in. After logging in, there were a couple of drivers that needed to be reinstalled in Device Manager, however after popping in the CD that came with the motherboard and loading up the appropriate drivers everything is working normally, and much faster :) As you can imagine, I was MUCHO relieved that I did not have to reload everything. I did notice that MS Office and Windows had to be reactivated, however this went without a problem and my machine was only down long enough to order the board and install it. I know most likely this will not be the case for everyone, but it can happen, as I can attest to! The only challenge I ran into was the fact that the IDE interface on the MB would only support 2 IDE devices (my current hard drives) but I also had a DVD writer which I had to swap out for a SATA device, however I also have a Iomega REV drive (IDE) and was able to buy an adaptor (IDE to SATA) to connect the IDE REV drive to SATA and now I am all set. Hopefully my experience is not an anomaly and other folks that face this issue will be able to change out the hardware without an OS reload. Good luck! Gary Bouchard