Swapping MoBo / Do I need to reinstall Win 7?

[Herkulese]

I am running Windows 7 Home Addition.

I am upgrading my motherboard, and an wondering if there is any chance that I can do it without having to reinstall Windows. I can do that, but would rather not, but I also don't hold out great hope in the prospect.

Current Board - ASUS - M3A78-EM (Phenom 0750 CPU)
New Board – Gigabyte – GA-970A-UD3 (Phenom II X4 965BE)

As I said, is there any hope of switching without a complete Windows 7 reinstall?

This only effects when I make the swap, as I don’t have the time, right now, to reinstall Windows 7 and all my other software, as I image the drive after each install, but I will have the time in a month or two.

Thanks

 

[Compman55]

If you have a legit copy of windows, then you can often phone in and you can re-activate. However even if this works, the OS will be a mess from all the old hardware still being there, and then detecting all new hardware. It works sometimes, and not others. Suck it up and reinstall.

 

[silicon]

I am running Windows 7 Home Addition.

I am upgrading my motherboard, and an wondering if there is any chance that I can do it without having to reinstall Windows. I can do that, but would rather not, but I also don't hold out great hope in the prospect.

Current Board - ASUS - M3A78-EM (Phenom 0750 CPU)
New Board – Gigabyte – GA-970A-UD3 (Phenom II X4 965BE)

As I said, is there any hope of switching without a complete Windows 7 reinstall?

This only effects when I make the swap, as I don’t have the time, right now, to reinstall Windows 7 and all my other software, as I image the drive after each install, but I will have the time in a month or two.

Thanks

only one way to find out is to try it....if possible load the generic drivers for the hardware BEFORE attempting the swap. As was mentioned just have to call the phone number to reactivate...have done this several times with MS Office. I am not sure if booting into safe mode will help you at all after installing the new MB. It could give the drivers a chance to load from the MB cd? Not sure though.

 

[Herkulese]

If you have a legit copy of windows, then you can often phone in and you can re-activate. However even if this works, the OS will be a mess from all the old hardware still being there, and then detecting all new hardware. It works sometimes, and not others. Suck it up and reinstall.

I expected as much, but hay, it's been a long time since I upgraded, and a lot has changed, so you can't blame me for asking, being Win7 and all.

BTW, I did pony up for a lagit copy of Windows 7, and not OEM either, so that will not be a problem. I bought just under a year ago, when it looked like it might not be available for much longer. It was only about $100, and I did not want to go to Win8 at all.

I will just have to wait a bit before I do the upgrad, that's all.

QUESTION: Can I upgrade only the CPU without a reinstall?

My CPU is listed, on the ASUS sight, as being supported for my motherboard, but the core number is slightly different. I may give that a try and see how it goes, then do the board later.

Thanks

 

[Drummerdude]

You can upgrade everything you want without a reinstall. As mentioned, the only real change you'd have to make, is to uninstall your hard drive controller drivers beforehand. Basically, you'd go into device manager, drop down ide/ata atapi controllers, and uninstall anything that said " controller ". After that, shutdown the computer, swap in new mobo and cpu, and when the computer loads up, it'll install a bunch of new drivers ( time will vary, but let it finish completely ) and will probably request a restart. Go ahead and restart, and viola, you're done!
I've done this quite a few times, and very very rarely do I have to do anything more.

 

[Ketchup]

The AMD chipsets on these boards are pretty similar, so I wouldn't guess you would have issues here. Windows 7 has its own SATA drivers, just make sure you are setting up the settings on the new board the same (AHCI or legacy).

Intel chipsets are a bit better at compatibility though, so I would 'be prepared for the worst' just in case.

 

[Herkulese]

You can upgrade everything you want without a reinstall. As mentioned, the only real change you'd have to make, is to uninstall your hard drive controller drivers beforehand. Basically, you'd go into device manager, drop down ide/ata atapi controllers, and uninstall anything that said " controller ". After that, shutdown the computer, swap in new mobo and cpu, and when the computer loads up, it'll install a bunch of new drivers ( time will vary, but let it finish completely ) and will probably request a restart. Go ahead and restart, and viola, you're done!
I've done this quite a few times, and very very rarely do I have to do anything more.

Thanks, I may give this a try.

Can you point me to any info that may give more detail on this?

 

[Drummerdude]

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/move-win...erboard-without-getting-blue-screen-of-death/
Basically, it's like using the basics of this thread, only, I didn't make it as complicated. Essentially, when you remove the hard drive controller driver, the computer is all set to load up with generic drivers, then install new ones. The reason behind the hard drive controller driver removal, is that windows uses the driver to load and run. It's basically using the driver to read the hdd. When you replace it with a generic driver, the generic will work on any motherboard, so that you can upgrade to a new motherboard. If you want, I can lay out the process, step by step.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/move-win...erboard-without-getting-blue-screen-of-death/
Basically, it's like using the basics of this thread, only, I didn't make it as complicated. Essentially, when you remove the hard drive controller driver, the computer is all set to load up with generic drivers, then install new ones. The reason behind the hard drive controller driver removal, is that windows uses the driver to load and run. It's basically using the driver to read the hdd. When you replace it with a generic driver, the generic will work on any motherboard, so that you can upgrade to a new motherboard. If you want, I can lay out the process, step by step.

That would be interesting if you did. Re-activating the OS with M$ aside, I'd been under the assumption that you could unload the drivers to replace with generic as you say, but you could likely get the system to boot for driver installation if moving from an older SATA controller by the same maker (Intel, NVidia, etc.) to a newer controller version.

 

[flatty]

I am running Windows 7 Home Addition.

I am upgrading my motherboard, and an wondering if there is any chance that I can do it without having to reinstall Windows. I can do that, but would rather not, but I also don't hold out great hope in the prospect.

Current Board - ASUS - M3A78-EM (Phenom 0750 CPU)
New Board – Gigabyte – GA-970A-UD3 (Phenom II X4 965BE)

As I said, is there any hope of switching without a complete Windows 7 reinstall?

This only effects when I make the swap, as I don’t have the time, right now, to reinstall Windows 7 and all my other software, as I image the drive after each install, but I will have the time in a month or two.

Thanks

Personal, I was lucky swapping 2 boards, M4A78 with M4A89 GTD PRO, so give a shot

good luck

 

[Herkulese]

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/move-win...erboard-without-getting-blue-screen-of-death/
Basically, it's like using the basics of this thread, only, I didn't make it as complicated. Essentially, when you remove the hard drive controller driver, the computer is all set to load up with generic drivers, then install new ones. The reason behind the hard drive controller driver removal, is that windows uses the driver to load and run. It's basically using the driver to read the hdd. When you replace it with a generic driver, the generic will work on any motherboard, so that you can upgrade to a new motherboard. If you want, I can lay out the process, step by step.

Thanks a lot Drummerdude, for providing more detailed information on your suggestion. I am very intrigued by the possibilities. I will probably do an reinstall at some point, but it would sure be nice to be able to do this build now, without that requirement.

Thanks again,

 

[red454]

I did something similar and used a software package called Paragon Adaptive Restore. It allows you to ramrod the necessary drivers into the new system.

 

[JBT]

I've had it work once, but had some stability issues that made me wondering for awhile... I'd just re install, and remove that chance.