Win7 OS on SSD swapped to new motherboard/CPU

[SimMike2]

Now I know everyone says don't do it, you will get a buggy install, but over the years I have done it frequently and most of the time the installs worked out perfectly fine. Sometimes they were a little buggy, but uninstalling stuff and installing drivers usually cured this. Even XP would do it as long as the hard drive controller wasn't radically different. I heard Windows 7 is the most graceful at this process of all previous Windows installs. And, yes, I know I will have to reactivate. And, no, I don't have an OEM version of Windows 7.

Now before you freak out, I can just see people chomping at the bit to warn me, I just cloned my SSD OS drive to a spare SATA hard drive I had sitting around. So in reality I have a really good test drive where I don't give a whit what happens to the the test drive OS. If this test works out poorly, I won't do it with my SSD. Either way, I'll backup all my SSD files, make a new image of it, run the Windows 7 migration wizard, and do everything else as if I am going to go the clean install route. So as you can see, it is a really painless experiment that I think would be ridiculous to not at least try.

I'm going from a core2duo 8400 intel 965p to a 2500K z68. I plan on just having the hard drive connected and using the onboard video of the new intel system for my test.

Remember, only the OEM version of Windows is tied to one physical computer. The full and upgrade version can installed multiple times, provided you only have it on one computer at a time. My current install is from when Windows 7 first came out a couple of years ago, so it has been a long time since I activated, which usually makes reactivation relatively painless.

 

[deustroop]

motherboard similar =ok

 

[CU]

I went from what is in my Sig (need to update that) to a P67 / 2500K. Just make sure you are using standard sata drivers in windows before you make the change. Then in your new board's bios make sure it is set to AHCI. That last part got me. I just assumed in 2011 it would be set to AHCI, but it was set to IDE instead. I didn't have any problems.

 

[SimMike2]

Just tried it and it worked fine. The only thing I did was set the SATA controllers to AHCI instead of IDE (why do even ultra modern motherboards default to IDE emulation?) After it finished installing drivers, I rebooted and installed the motherboard Gigabyte drivers. All the devices got setup correctly. I never connected my network cable because I didn't want internet connection to this test setup. It gives me three days to activate. I did run MS Word and that wants to activate also.

I think I will give this a try, that is after I image and backup everything as if I am going to do a clean install. Three days is enough time to experiment before I activate.

One thing for sure is this older hard drive is sure a slug compared to my SSD drive.

As suspected Windows 7 was much more graceful with this wholesale change.

 

[SimMike2]

Just did this with my main SSD install of Win7 home premium. Worked excellent. A couple of programs, Office 2010 and Vegas Movie Studio to name two, also asked to be reactivated. Everything works good. After one day I also reactivated Windows and that worked fine too. I also upped the multiplier on the CPU, the 2500K is unlocked, and it is happily running at over 4G without increasing the core voltage.

I know in the past Windows would always accept a CPU change without freaking out. Now it appears, it will also accept a motherboard change at the same time, although it doesn't hurt if they are both Intel, as in my case. Also not for OEM. My Windows copy was an upgrade and I waited probably at least 1 1/2 years between last activation.

I say give this a try. But do it right. Backup all your data as if you are going clean install. I made an Acronis image of my boot drive. I backed it up, complete with image, using Windows 7 backup software. And I copied everything with the Windows Migration Wizard. So I was all set to proceed with a clean install if that is what I chose to do. I'm glad I didn't. Very painless upgrade to a CPU which will dramatically speed up video encoding.

 

[Uppsala9496]

Thinking about making a similar move.
Originally had a retail version of XP Pro. Bought the Win7 family pack upgrade (have only used 1 of the 3 upgrades to date).
I have no idea where I placed my XP key over the years. I'm sure it's in a box somewhere.

Think I will have an issue with a major hardware upgrade?
I'm thinking new mobo, cpu, ram.

Right now I am on an old athlon x2 and will be going to a phenom x2. Mobo brands will be different, or would I be better off sticking with the same brand?

 

[SimMike2]

Thinking about making a similar move.
Originally had a retail version of XP Pro. Bought the Win7 family pack upgrade (have only used 1 of the 3 upgrades to date).
I have no idea where I placed my XP key over the years. I'm sure it's in a box somewhere.

Think I will have an issue with a major hardware upgrade?
I'm thinking new mobo, cpu, ram.

Right now I am on an old athlon x2 and will be going to a phenom x2. Mobo brands will be different, or would I be better off sticking with the same brand?

Very similar to my upgrade. I would backup everything and simply swap in the motherboard and CPU change. It should work. BTW, even if you do a "clean install" of the "upgrade" version, you can do the old double install trick. First install it to your bare hard drive, not putting in the CD key when it asks. It will install fine. When it finishes installing and is finished updating, it might take a couple of reboots, put your install disk back in and install it again, starting from within Windows 7. This time enter the CD key when it asks. But seriously, I would try just swapping in your new parts, like I did. My system is working excellent. No problems that I can see.

 

[classy]

Windows 7 sysprep is signifcantly better than XP. Just clean up your drive and run sysprep located in system32, sysprep folder. Select out of box experience, check generalize, and shutdown. Afterwards just put the drive in the new PC and it will run similar to a fresh install. Done.

 

[jhansman]

My motherboard/CPU/RAM upgrade took my current install of Win7 almost as is; only needed to update two drivers, and those the OS found on its own. Finally-a M$ operating system that (you should pardon the expression) just works.

 

[SimMike2]

Windows 7 sysprep is signifcantly better than XP. Just clean up your drive and run sysprep located in system32, sysprep folder. Select out of box experience, check generalize, and shutdown. Afterwards just put the drive in the new PC and it will run similar to a fresh install. Done.

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to check that out.

And, yes, I agree with Windows 7 "just works" when doing upgrades to your hardware.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Windows 7 sysprep is signifcantly better than XP. Just clean up your drive and run sysprep located in system32, sysprep folder. Select out of box experience, check generalize, and shutdown. Afterwards just put the drive in the new PC and it will run similar to a fresh install. Done.

Thanks, I might finally be upgrading my E8400/G31 system to Sandy Bridge soon and it would be nice not to have to reinstall Windows.

 

[Uppsala9496]

For what it is worth...
I used the seagate disc clone to clone my master drive onto a spare. Went ahead and replaced my mobo, cpu, ram. Started windows under the cloned drive. Updated drivers via the mobo cd. Windows then asked me to validate. I said yes not thinking because I was on my cloned drive. Validation was online and instantly accepted.

I went ahead and just repeated the cloned drive steps again to get my original drive corrected. If my backup drive wasn't so damn noisy I would have left well enough alone, but it was driving me nuts the past couple of days.

Very impressed with how easy it was to replace pretty much all of my hardware.

 

[SimMike2]

As an update, even though this has nothing to do with the motherboard/CPU switch, which went great, I just swapped in a different SATA 3 SSD drive. At first I used Acronis True Image to clone my old SSD, which was the identical size. This worked but totally messed up the alignment of the new drive, which is important for SSD. If it isn't aligned correctly, it can hurt performance big time. I tried to align it with some Paragon software, but it totally fried the install. BSOD. So I had a Windows 7 created image before I started this cloning, so I let Windows reinstall my image. This took literally hours, probably six. Not sure why it took so long but once it was done, the new SSD with Windows 7 was working perfect, correctly aligned and all.

So my point is don't expect all cloning software to get the alignment of SSD correct. Acronis True Image 2009 didn't get it right, even though it works great for regular hard drives.

 

[Googer]

motherboard similar =ok

As long as you have retail Windows, Okay as well. Then any motherboard will do. OEM Windows is locked down to that type of CPU & Socket and that brand & make of motherboard.

If you have retail, then you should be able to swap from AMD to INTEL or vice versa with no problem.

EXAMPLE:
I had an Emachines, the motherboard was a custom emachines oem made by Intel.
My other desktop had a genuine Intel retail motherboard with the same socket. The HDD Swap from the emachines to the retail intel worked flawlessly using Windows XP. Note, this was the version of Win which used recovery discs.

 

[corkyg]

So my point is don't expect all cloning software to get the alignment of SSD correct. Acronis True Image 2009 didn't get it right, even though it works great for regular hard drives.

TI 2009 development predates SSDs. TI2011 works.

 

[SimMike2]

TI 2009 development predates SSDs. TI2011 works.

I do like Acronis. I'll have to get the newer version, that is if I can find a good price.