Swapping almost identical Mobo's, Is Win7 reinstall really Needed?..

NiteSurfer

NiteSurfer

NiteSurfer

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20 Feb 2006
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Hi.

I need to change motherboards,
Now I know a fresh install of windows is best in most cases,
but because I've got so much stuff to reinstall and e-mails to save etc..
it would take days to get it all back on again.

But I've been thinking, I'm not changing the CPU or the RAM or anything else.

Just the mobo's AND they share the same chipsets.!!

Current Mobo P6T SE.
Change to P6T Deluxe V2.

They both use the Intel x58/ICH10R Chipsets.
The Deluxe V2 has a differnt storage controller and Audio/LAN Controllers.

But that's it.

The reason for change, is so I can use two Double slot size AMD XFX6950's.
and just in case anyone is curious. Both are new and cost me less then a GTX580.

So.. if I booted up my SSD with the existing installation onto the new Mobo.
would windows 7 64bit detect and make the necessary changes without any problems!..

Advice needed please.

Many Thanks
 
I went from gigabyte 890G chipset to asus 990X chipset (AM3+) without a reinstall. It worked fine. I just installed any new motherboard drivers required after rebooting. You will probably have to reinstall graphics drivers as it may default to VGA after.
Ram or CPU would not require changes anyway as the bios would pick that up. I have a retail copy of win7.

Have done so now because of new SSD and I wanted a clean install.
 
Same chipset will be fine. Just uninstall anything which will change, such as sound/graphics etc before removing it.
 
Try it and see. Most likely it will work, however I once swapped a motherboard for the same model (RMA replacement) and Windows refused to boot (kept blue screening). They must have made some minor revision on the replacement board.
 
I went from an Asus P5Q pro to an Asus P8Z77WS (completely different chipsets/cpu/ram) and didn't have to reinstall windows 7. the only reason I eventually did was to alter my raid setup. both Windows 7 and Windows 8 works fine after the change though, which to be honest surprised me!
 
Definitely cover your bases by backing up but I would just swap them over. Modern Windows (Vista/7) seems to handle it much better, I've swapped chipset manufacturers before (from Nvidia Nforce 650i to Intel P55) and Windows booted up no problem at all, it's not like the old days of XP and below where you'd almost certainly be met with a bluescreen.
 
I went from P35 to P45 to P67 without reinstalling Win7, still runs as good as it did on Day 1 and is just as clean (although that's due to maintenance).

It can work...but as mentioned, backups should be kept at all times anyway whether you're migrating components or not!
 
done this a few times

1. create a new back up of current system
2. Un-install and AHCI / chipset drivers / on board audio driver (or just use sysprep with generalize ticked)
3. Power system down and change mobo
4. Boot system up and install new drivers.
 
I've got a copy of XP thats I've succesfully swapped between 3 separate builds/PC's... to increase the chances of success -


Switch to legacy IDE mode in the BIOS rather than AHCI (less likely to cause driver conflicts)
make sure you're using the generic microsoft IDE driver (remove any others)
If you're swapping from Intel to AMD cpu make sure you remove any Intel drivers
Remove/disable any non-generic chipset drivers
It works with Retail version of XP... have doubts it will work with OEM and certainly won't with volume licenced editions.

Windows 7 is a lot more forgiving
 
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