Operating system help

Coxy-Clocker123 · 10 May 2014 at 16:20

my pc is running an OEM version of windows 7, but i want to upgrade a few components, primarily the motherboard, and also i would like to upgrade to windows 8 sooooo how do i go about this without losing all my data on my hard drive

Idleman · 10 May 2014 at 16:38

Do you only have the one hdd?

Coxy-Clocker123 · 10 May 2014 at 16:49

unfortunately yes

Idleman · 10 May 2014 at 16:54

Coxy-Clocker123 said:
unfortunately yes

OK, how big is the hdd and do you have it partitioned?
If so, what are the partition sizes, especially the one containing your OS?
And, how much free space do you have?

Coxy-Clocker123 · 10 May 2014 at 19:22

i dont mean to be rude and ignore what you just said, but my worry is that the OS is tied to the motherboard and if i switch out the motherboard, regardless of what i have done to my hard drive it just wouldnt work??

ExRayTed · 10 May 2014 at 19:35

Let me understand - you want to upgrade your motherboard and buy a copy of windows 8 to upgrade your existing O/S?

Surely the easiest thing to do is partition the hard drive, save the irreplaceable data onto the new partition, then install a fresh copy of windows 8? You can then reinstall programs

mx0range · 10 May 2014 at 19:43

Coxy-Clocker123 said:
i dont mean to be rude and ignore what you just said, but my worry is that the OS is tied to the motherboard and if i switch out the motherboard, regardless of what i have done to my hard drive it just wouldnt work??

i have reinstalled windows so many times iv lost count and changed just about every component. if online activation hasnt worked then its just a simple call.. but that said, if you get windows 8 too, whats the prob?

paulstung · 10 May 2014 at 21:30

As mentioned you can either partition your files that you want to keep, and then install W8. Or buy a 2nd hard drive, or flash drive, to back up your files to that. One thing I would do though would be remove and re install any program or app, because you might have some compatibility issue between W7 and your fresh install of W8