Changing motherboards without reformatting windows...

[Richdog]

This may (will) sound like an incredibly stupid question, but in all m time of PC buildng i've had it drilled into me that when changing motherboards, you need to reformat for best results. As I am soon intending to go with the NV 680 chipset I am just wondering... to save the supreme hassle of having top re-install all my apps and games, can I swap motherboards without reformatting (ie: just uninstall mobo drivers, install new mobo then re-install new mobo) and expect trouble-free computing afterwards?

What method do people here use?

 

[Richdog]

A fresh install is always best when changing chipsets.

Simply uninstalling the drivers may work fine, but it's likely to cause problems some way down the line.

Best to do a re-install, that way you get zero problems.

Yeah that's what i've always been brought up to believe... it's just after 10+ years of upgrading i'm kind of getting sick of reformatting and re-installing every bloody app and game every time I change. *sigh*

Oh well, reformat it is then...

 

[Richdog]

Yeah I always back up all the essentials like favourites, save games etc (been doing it a loong time), and I have all my essential programs and utilities saved etc for re-installing, I am just getting tired of reinstalling everything whenever I upgrade, I seem to have lost the will for it in the last couple of years, so much hassle.