Where is the OS?

[Fly2e]

I was wondering, where does the operating system make its home? Is it in the motherboard? I was wondering this because if you change your motherboard, do you need to do an entire reinstall of your operating system and all your goodies?

Thanks for your time!

Dave

[ozzy72]

It lives on the hard drive Dave
Are you perchance confusing your BIOS with your OS?
You should be able to change the motherboard, and then you just have to adjust the settings after booting.

Mark

[Fly2e]

Thanks Mark, and I thought you were only smart to flying inverted and changing nappies!!

[Iroquois]

You will still need to do a complete reinstall of your OS if you change your mobo. The funny thing about any OS is that they don't like to have their motherboards changed on them. Often times they won't recognize the board unless its the same model. If you try to switch boards without reinstalling the OS,  it will freeze up or refuse to boot at all.

The motherboard is a bit like your spinal cord. It directs the electronic  pulses in and out of the CPU and to all the other parts of the computer. The BIOS chip on the mobo is a very basic OS. In fact BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System. It provides the motherboard and CPU with the instructions necessary to boot the main OS and to keep everthing stable. If the BIOS is toast then the computer won't start.

[Fly2e]

Thanks Orenda, I appreciate it!

Dave

[Rivers]

The funny thing about any OS is that they don't like to have their motherboards changed on them

Actually before Windows XP you could only plug your HD into an entire new system and only install the new drivers for the devices, it changed with windows XP because of its activation that analyzes the hardware to determine if you are installing the OS into a new system.

[4_Series_Scania]

[quote]You will still need to do a complete reinstall of your OS if you change your mobo. The funny thing about any OS is that they don't like to have their motherboards changed on them. Often times they won't recognize the board unless its the same model. If you try to switch boards without reinstalling the OS,

[Skittles]

The motherboard is a bit like your spinal cord. It directs the electronic  pulses in and out of the CPU and to all the other parts of the computer. The BIOS chip on the mobo is a very basic OS. In fact BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System. It provides the motherboard and CPU with the instructions necessary to boot the main OS and to keep everthing stable. If the BIOS is toast then the computer won't start.

That's the best explanation I've ever heard (read).

Win2K is finiky. Sometimes it worked fine after switching boards. Sometimes it didn't work too well and sometimes it didn't work at all.

I don't remember the boards or the differences.

[TWA800]

I know with my system the mobo itself can't be replaced with a better one because the OS, (XP), came pre-installed on my  Hewlett-Packard. Everything is integrated together including  the bios which can't be modded.  Warranty issues i guess. I might be able to change the mobo and reformat and install a different, OEM version of xp but then i would still be stuck with my slow HD and 220 watt PS and the hot HP case.  Better to start from scratch now that i know what i want.