I installed a new mobo and kept my existing system (Win 98).  I installed
all the PCI cards on the new mobo without uninstalling them before the last
shutdown.  I did not expect that Win 98 would see them as new devices.  It
reinstalled everything, and I had to go into safe mode and uninstall
sometimes 2 or 3 listings of the same thing.  It hasn't been completely
right since then.  I would recommend that you uninstall all the peripherals
in device manager, and be especially watchful for USB devices.  Go into
C:\windows\inf and c:\windows\inf\other to remove the .inf files on your PCI
cards and ISA cards.  Uninstall the software for them.  You can boot into
safe mode to check device manager and remove your drives (I sometimes had as
many as six type 47 generic drives.  It would also be good to remove all the
stuff under "system resources". You will have a big reinstall while Win Me
detects and installs all the stuff.  Before you reinstall any PCI or ISA
cards or printers and scanners, run any software that came with your mobo.
Win Me may be better at this than Win 98.  About every 4 or 5 restarts it
will boot into safe mode because there are too many hard drives, and too
many of several other things.  I find a Promise Ultra card and an ISA modem
installed that I physically removed and deleted the software for.  I don't
know how Windows does that.  I posted this problem but did not get a single
answer.  Wait for some other answers from people who use Win Me before you
do anything.  Win 98 may be completely different.


Greetings,

I plan to upgrade my PC by installing a new motherboard, memory and
processor.
I will be using the same hardware in the new system.  I would like to keep
my present OS (WinME) intact.

Should I go into Device Manager and remove all of the hardware before
shutting down the old system for the last time, and letting the new system
re-detect the hardware?  Should I boot to Safe Mode and remove all of the
hardware references?

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