Upgrade help, OS question

Skallagrimsson · 14 Sep 2018 at 11:11

Hi,
I'm about to upgrade my motherboard, Ram and CPU for my old rig and i wanted to know what to do with the SSD that has my windows OS on it.
Will i be able to connect the SSD to the new hardware and just put a new windows key in to activate it again. Or am i going to have to format it and do a fresh install? I dont have a spare or external drive to backup all my important files and really dont want to have to format and reinstall everything.

All help is greatly appreciated cause this topic ive found really confusing to research online as ive never had to do it before and dont want to screw it up.

Thanks

orbitalwalsh · 14 Sep 2018 at 11:18

Skallagrimsson said:
Hi,
I'm about to upgrade my motherboard, Ram and CPU for my old rig and i wanted to know what to do with the SSD that has my windows OS on it.
Will i be able to connect the SSD to the new hardware and just put a new windows key in to activate it again. Or am i going to have to format it and do a fresh install? I dont have a spare or external drive to backup all my important files and really dont want to have to format and reinstall everything.

All help is greatly appreciated cause this topic ive found really confusing to research online as ive never had to do it before and dont want to screw it up.

Thanks

guessing you've sign into your MSN/hotmail account on your current hard drive/PC if its windows 10 ?

if so and when you move it across and if it asks to reactivate, contact MS via webchat option and state you've had to replace a broken mothered and its asking for you to pay for another windows copy when you've already bought one. should sort you out

Skallagrimsson · 14 Sep 2018 at 11:28

orbitalwalsh said:
guessing you've sign into your MSN/hotmail account on your current hard drive/PC if its windows 10 ?

if so and when you move it across and if it asks to reactivate, contact MS via webchat option and state you've had to replace a broken mothered and its asking for you to pay for another windows copy when you've already bought one. should sort you out

Is it that easy? Just plug it in and itll boot up the same

Vidar · 14 Sep 2018 at 11:56

Hi, I'm not sure how to answer your question as such but log in to your Microsoft One drive account, as far as I'm aware Windows 10 automatically backs up user files here. You have 5gb free and can purchase more if necessary. Great way for backing things up.

orbitalwalsh · 14 Sep 2018 at 12:29

Skallagrimsson said:
Is it that easy? Just plug it in and itll boot up the same

yep, you'll still need to install drivers etc .

depends on your board to, but try to plug into sata port thats linked to the boards Chipset and not a 3rd party controller (normally these sata ports are a different colour or located else where from the others and in small amounts)