P35 to Z77 without reinstalling Win7?

[fleshconsumed]

I have a relatively old Q9550 rig. It still does what I need it to do, and originally I promised myself to wait until Haswell to upgrade, but the latest 3570 deals from Microcenter are very hard to pass by. The biggest stepping stone is reinstalling OS, I really really do not want to deal with reinstalling OS and all of my apps. Does anyone know if it would be possible to use "system image" function in the Windows 7 Backup and Restore to move over my system from P35 to Z77 system without doing a complete reinstall?

 

[COPOHawk]

When I built my new i5-3570K system (and moved from my Q6600)...I just took my Intel SSD and plugged it into the new system. Win 7 (Pro 64 bit) found the basic drivers to boot into the system and I then installed the proper Gigabyte drivers from the CD. Everything worked without a hitch. I did this swap about 5 months ago...no issues.

I have worked with Windows a long time, and was blown away that this hardware migration worked without a hitch. i always tell people to reinstall Windows when switching hardware...but not anymore.

Of course, if your Win 7 install has issues or is flaky...then plan on reinstall.

 

[Zxian]

Intel chipset drivers have stayed largely the same for quite some time. As long as you're moving between Intel chipsets you should have few hiccups. Just make sure to update the chipset drivers from Intel's website afterwards.

Just backup your data beforehand!

 

[BurnItDwn]

technically, I believe an OEM license of Windows 7 is "tied to the motherboard"... meaning if you swap mobo's, you'll likely be violating the TOS. It may cause issues with activation or windows thinking it's not "genuine."

If you have full retail license for windows, then my reply is useless.

 

[slayernine]

The biggest problem will be if you switch from IDE mode to AHCI or RAID. So if your HDD is using IDE keep it that way.