Windows 7 and motherbaord swap

jorzeh

jorzeh

jorzeh

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If i'm running windows 7 home retail on a system and i decide i want to change out the mainboard cpu and ram will i have to reinstall the OS.. afew people said that i would have to? anyone know for sure.

Personally i would have thought Win 7 would just install the new drivers itself and then just have to reauthicate online again.

I know reinstall is the best option but i only put on this win 7 3 weeks ago i only just got all i wanted back on it.
 
It is always better to do a clean reinstall when changing motherboards. It may well work but you could be storing up problems that may cause you even more grief later on.
My advice is, do a clean install, take an image with something like Acronis True Image and then it is just a question of restoring the image in the future.
 
Windows 7 will attempt to install the new drivers but only if it can boot after the switch which may well not be the case, as it'll boot with a set of drivers that might not work at all or at worse blue screen bause of them.

Only a guess but booting into safe mode and removing drivers etc before changing the motherboard may increase your chances of success. I personally would do a fresh install though.
 
Just to make sure, you are changing mobo/cpu/ram entirely? Not replacing it with the same stuff.
 
Tbh, I migrated from my Q6600 4GB of PC2-8500 DDR2, and an Abit IP35-PRO to the spec to the Q6600 sitting in an Intel DX38BT with 8GB of DDR3 without reinstalling as I really didn't want the hassle.

Was absolutely fine.
 
Generally if you going from simular chipsets/sata setups (intel to intel), then you probably wont have a problem and windows is pretty good in sorting itself out, but if you're moving to different makes (intel to nvidia etc) then you might come unstuck.
 
Make sure you change the IDE driver to the standard Microsoft one and you should be fine. I migrated a Core 2 Quad system on an X38 motherboard to my current i7 system without having to reinstall Windows and no issues at all.
 
i'm actually using the standard drivers anyway All the mainboard drivers are the ones win7 installed only thing i really installed were the video card and the sound card "standard duel channel PCIIDE Controller"

I really didnt see the point at the time in installing the real drivers and preformance is awsome if im honest i will be installing the correct drivers once the new boards in ofc.
 
jorzeh said:
i'm actually using the standard drivers anyway All the mainboard drivers are the ones win7 installed only thing i really installed were the video card and the sound card "standard duel channel PCIIDE Controller"

I really didnt see the point at the time in installing the real drivers and preformance is awsome if im honest i will be installing the correct drivers once the new boards in ofc.
Click to expand...

You should have no issues then, when you boot on the new motherboard expect to have to wait on the login screen for around 5 minutes though as it reinstalls all the hardware.
 
Give it a shot. You already know you might have to do a reinstall, but this is not always a certainty. Either way there is no harm in trying! :)

I have changed motherboards in the past and not had problems.
 
If you're moving Intel to Intel or AMD to AMD it will generally work ok without reinstalling but if you move Intel to AMD you will probably will need to reinstall.
 
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