A new MB doesn't always mean headaches ... OK, OK - I know, let's take this #### pill.

• I got this New (super-ultra-cool-powerful) Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3 Motherboard, which has got an intel P35 Chipset.

My main computer instead was based off an ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe Rev 2 (AMD MB) while all of my main OS (Windows XP) data was stored within a glorious SATA WD Raptor X 150G HDD.

What I wanted to do was:

1. Move my Windows XP install, From the good old glorious ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe Rev 2 (AMD MB) To this new Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3 (intel MB).
2. Move without re-installing Windows XP from scratch.
3. Preserve all data and customisations as-is(!).

In order to not to have to reinstall Windows XP from scratch, I proceeded as follows.

(On the Old ASUS MB):

1. Connected a new spare IDE Hard disk (bigger than the original SATA Raptor hdd) to the IDE controller.
2. Booted Ubuntu live and cloned the Raptor HDD to the New spare IDE HDD (dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/hda bs=32256).
3. Booted the old Asus MB with the new IDE HD and made sure it worked perfectly and flawlessly.
4. SYSPREP-PED Windows XP while on the Old Asus MB with sysprep.exe - you will find sysprep on every Windows XP CD, at SUPPORT\TOOLS\Deploy.cab (I used these options, “MiniSetup” and “Pre-Activate”- get ready for product key).
5. Pulled out the IDE HDD From the old Asus MB.

(On the New Gigabyte MB):

1. Connected the IDE HDD To the NEW Gigabyte MB.
2. Booted it (it worked!).
3. After some basic setup questions, I made it to my old (original) Desktop(!).
4. I then searched, obtained and installed the new (Gigabyte intel MB) Drivers.

Despite the above may sound like "a pain in the ass", trust me - it is heaps better than having to reinstall all from scratch.

This post also proves that the migration from an AMD CPU to an intel CPU is possible, doable and relatively straightforward.

Pretty much everything worked just fine with the exception of my SATA HDDs: they all disappered!

Not a worry 'though - On a subsequent post I'll show you how I managed to get my SATA HDDs to show up (Hint: My other Raptor SATA HDD was set to "AHCI mode" on the Old Asus' MB BIOS).

[UPDATE]: Here's the follow-up article as promised: http://www.pwrusr.com/dirty-hacks/access-ahci-ncq-sata-hdds-from-xp-with-intel-ich9-sb

[UPDATE-2017-02-05]: Reviewed whole article - it didn't make any sense 🙂