migrating from an biostar h77 motherboard to asus z77 mb without reinstalling windows

[evident]

Can you guys give me some pointers to make this as painless as possible? I know there are tricks to pull this off successfully but i cant recall them at the moment.

I want to swap my HTPC motherboard from a biostar H77MU3 to an Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe. i'll be doing a clonezilla image of my hard drive to another hard drive before trying this out so if i mess something up i can revert back. basically my HTPC is all good to go and i dont' want to mess up any settings.

i'm swapping motherboards because i'm going to build my parents a HTPC with the H77 mobo.

I basically only have a SSD and big WD Green HD attached to the htpc right now. using integrated graphics, and audio.

windows 7 pro

 

[monkeydelmagico]

With an image backed up already just try plugging in the Windows drive to the new mobo. Should recognize the new mobo and start picking up the drivers. I've had good luck with a recent mobo swap. Might have to re-activate windows.

I've seen where others have removed all the drivers prior to the swap so there are no conflicts. Doing H to Z77 shouldn't have that problem though.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

The 3 times I've tried it there were no special tricks required, just replaced the board, windows recognised the new hardware and the system worked fine. Might need a couple restarts to finish installing everything.

Could make a backup just in case though.

 

[crashtech]

Well I clone the drive and then mess with the clone. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If Windows locks up on boot even in Safe Mode, I put the clone back on the original mobo and run sysprep /generalize. Best to read up on that first if you are gonna do it.

 

[Charlie98]

I was fixing to axe the same question.... I'll be swapping my Gigabyte Z68 over to an Asus Z68 board in a few weeks. I don't think I even have any GB utilities running anymore.

...I hope it's just that easy.

 

[country2]

I know few years back I was watching tech tv ( man I miss that show) and Leo Laporte did it by just uninstalling the drivers..now this was a few years back so I know times has changed.

I have used software I purchased to do it 3 times now without a hitch..Terabyte Unimited Image for Linux and the TBIDTool.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Laporte

 

[schmuckley]

Should be OK..Might need different audio and LAN drivers..
Have the ones you need already on a usb stick.

 

[jkauff]

You didn't mention what version of Windows you're using. If you're on Win 7 or earlier, you'll probably have to go through the over-the-phone Windows re-activation. Win 8 is much more tolerant of MB swaps and does a good job of automatically downloading the basic drivers for your new board. No reactivation required.

Be sure to go to the Asus support site afterwards and download the latest versions of the BIOS, chipset and other drivers, and utilities (if you choose to use them).

 

[evident]

You didn't mention what version of Windows you're using. If you're on Win 7 or earlier, you'll probably have to go through the over-the-phone Windows re-activation. Win 8 is much more tolerant of MB swaps and does a good job of automatically downloading the basic drivers for your new board. No reactivation required.

Be sure to go to the Asus support site afterwards and download the latest versions of the BIOS, chipset and other drivers, and utilities (if you choose to use them).

sorry. using windows 7 pro. dont mind doing the over the phone activation. more worried if my machine is still going to run well without crapping out. its going to be used as our main HTPC.

 

[biostud]

I just switched from an i5-750 p55 motherboard to a x99 i7-5820K without re-install of windows 8.1. Just had to install drivers from the motherboard driver dvd and activate Windows over the phone.

 

[evident]

Looks like it was pretty painless. Had to install a bunch of Asus specific drivers like wifi 、 Bluetooth and Intel lan. Otherwise after a few reboots it was good to go.

 

[Charlie98]

Looks like it was pretty painless. Had to install a bunch of Asus specific drivers like wifi 、 Bluetooth and Intel lan. Otherwise after a few reboots it was good to go.

Cool... glad it worked.

I'm going to clean install W7 when I swap boards anyway... it's time... but it's nice to know it'll work.

 

[evident]

Cool... glad it worked.

I'm going to clean install W7 when I swap boards anyway... it's time... but it's nice to know it'll work.

honestly with windows 7 i havent been doing that much at all. i used to do clean installs almost annually with windows xp. i've had the same install of W7 on my main box for about 3 years. the HTPC is just set up so perfectly right now and i forget all the apps that i have to install. i dont really feel like wasting a day to get it all up and running, nor do i have the time anymore

 

[monkeydelmagico]

honestly with windows 7 i havent been doing that much at all. i used to do clean installs almost annually with windows xp. i've had the same install of W7 on my main box for about 3 years. the HTPC is just set up so perfectly right now and i forget all the apps that i have to install. i dont really feel like wasting a day to get it all up and running, nor do i have the time anymore

Yeah if you are not swapping equipment much win7 will run forever.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Yeah, my win7 install lasted until the harddrive died.

 

[denis280]

next time try this from Babbaleone.Works great
Open Notepad and copy/paste the following:

set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1
start devmgmt.msc

Name the file "setdev.bat", and save it to the Desktop as "All files" (not text document [*.txt]). Double-click setdev.bat and it opens an advanced MSC version of Device Manager. Select; View>>Devices by type>>Show hidden devices. You will now be able to see every single device that has ever been installed on your current Windows installation.

This view includes all currently installed devices, and all devices no longer installed or connected (non-existent). All the icons for non-existent devices will be "ghosted" (semi-translucent, pale gray color).

Starting at the top and working your way down the list ( click every + sign to expand each device), right-click each installed device icon, and each ghosted device icon and select "Uninstall".

Ignore any prompts to reboot the PC. When you're completely finished uninstalling all currently installed devices, as well as all non-existent devices, shutdown the computer, then remove the hard drive. It's now ready to install onto new hardware.

 

[Charlie98]

honestly with windows 7 i havent been doing that much at all. i used to do clean installs almost annually with windows xp. i've had the same install of W7 on my main box for about 3 years. the HTPC is just set up so perfectly right now and i forget all the apps that i have to install. i dont really feel like wasting a day to get it all up and running, nor do i have the time anymore

No, I hear you... my HTPC W7/G620/B75 setup is so perfect I'm hoping I don't ever have to touch it! My main desktop is what I'm talking about.