Moving boot drive from one PC to another

[Boxfreshchris]

I have a 500GB M2 in my current Intel machine, and I'm building a Ryzen 5000 based machine next week.

Now, is it possible to simply take the boot drive across? I have Office, various games/save files and programs I'd rather not re-download/install.

 

[pc-guy]

Possible but likely to cause a lot of hassle and issues. Best is to backup all your files and do a fresh install. At the least do a reset of windows.

 

[Kurgen]

I have a 500GB M2 in my current Intel machine, and I'm building a Ryzen 5000 based machine next week.

Now, is it possible to simply take the boot drive across? I have Office, various games/save files and programs I'd rather not re-download/install.

I moved an M.2 with all my software from an Intel Socket 2011-v3 Motherboard to an AM4 motherboard, no issues at all. A few reboots etc whilst it sorts the drivers out, you will need to re-activate windows, and possibly get a new license, i got a cheap one from the bay.

fyi, steam is very good at finding existing games on hard drives if you do re-install. and office can be installed as part of windows install

 

[Boxfreshchris]

I've linked my digital licence to my Microsoft account, so that should work fine.

I think I've talked myself into a fresh Windows install though. I've already got a .iso USB drive from another project, so think I might just wipe the whole drive after building the new PC and start fresh