Hi,

My recomendation would be to take little steps at a time.  It's easier to
figure out what may have gone wrong
if something does, that if you make a bunch of changes all at once.

If the system is working well, I would do the following in this order.

Delete all temporay and unused files
Run Scan Disk
Run Defrag
Install in a temporay directory the Drivers on the CD for the New main Board
Install all the Windows Cab files in another tempory directory if not
already on the hard drive
        reason for the last two instructions, you usually do not have access to
the cd-rom for a bit
        when you change a main board, so if they are on the hard drive you will
have access to them.
Install the new main board
make sure all devices are working correctly
make sure you have the latest XP drivers for your hardware on hand
intall the windows XP upgrade




At 10:07 PM 01/14/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>I will be helping a friend with his pc soon.
>He  will be upgrading an existing win98 system to xp pro and at the same
>time will be installing a new motherboard/ ram.
>
> I would like some opinions on whether it would be better to get
>the old win98 working(hardware detected) with the new motherboard first or
>just go ahead and install the motherboard and boot up with winpro upgrade
>and have the new operating system sort things out as far as hardware is
>concerned.
>
>I want to preserve the software on this pc.
>
>
>John Zyla
>[log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>http://www.smart.net/~captzyla
>
>      |\
>     ,| \   A ship in harbor is safe--
>    /_|__\  but that is not what ships are for.
>     \~~|                                      John A. Shedd
>`~~~~~~~~* * * * * * * * * *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
>
>                  Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
>               articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
>                          http://freepctech.com
>
God Bless America!

Joe Lore
MicroComputerCenter, Inc.
781-933-5530 / [log in to unmask]

              The NOSPIN Group is now offering Free PC Tech
                     support at our newest website:
                          http://freepctech.com