Upgrading Parts, Do I Have To Reinstall Windows?

JoeDin2056 · 26 Jun 2017 at 11:51

Hi all,

So last week I did a fresh install on my computer, took me a couple of days to get all my software setup and to get windows 10 fully updated along with all my user settings ect.

I then used Macrium Reflect to make a backup of this new install. After that I have installed some new software and a lot of my steam games.

I then ended up buying some upgrades for my computer, I will be putting them in next week.

My problem is I would rather not have to reinstall everything again. I also know that Macrium Reflect has a feature to redeploy an image to new hardware. By that time the image will be a couple weeks old and I have made changes to software games ect.

So I was wondering do I have to reinstall from scratch after I change my parts, or would redeploying the image with new drivers be better. Or even better can I leave it as is and just install new driver?

Im replacing the following

Motherboard, my old one is a Gigabyte X99 and my new one is an Asus B250F
CPU, my old one is a 5th gen i7 and my new one is a 7th gen i7
RAM, my old ram was 12GB DDR4 and my new one is 32Gb DDR4
GPU, my old gpu was 2 gtx980ti's and my new one is a single gtx1080ti

So the GPU drivers should not matter as they are the same driver, the ram and cpu should not need any drivers. Its the motherboard that I imagine will be the issue?

I have already download all the drivers for the new motherboard and have placed them in a folder on my C drive.

So what is the best thing to do here? can I get away with just putting the new parts in then starting up and install the new drivers? or will I have to do it all from scratch or redeploy with new drivers, but the old image will still have my old drivers.

Thanks Joe.

Jim99 · 26 Jun 2017 at 11:58

When I last upgraded, I went from Z68 i5 to AMD Ryzen and just plugged the same W10 hard drive in and it worked fine first time.

Since then I've got round to reinstalling Windows but I was surprised at how good it was.

JoeDin2056 · 26 Jun 2017 at 12:00

Do you mean your surprised how well it worked without the reinstall or how much better it was after the reinstall?

hornetstinger · 26 Jun 2017 at 12:00

You'll be fine with RAM, GPU and CPU no need to install windows
With motherboard though it may do.

JoeDin2056 · 26 Jun 2017 at 12:07

If it does need to reinstall will it do like an in-house upgrade so I won't lose my files?

Jim99 · 26 Jun 2017 at 14:46

JoeDin2056 said:
Do you mean your surprised how well it worked without the reinstall or how much better it was after the reinstall?

The former.

JoeDin2056 · 27 Jun 2017 at 07:10

ok thats cool, i will just put the new parts in and hope for the best.

iamthenugget · 27 Jun 2017 at 07:37

i tried to do that a couple of weeks back and until last friday had lots of stupid little problems, reinstalled and everything was perfect. big dif from changing ssd over and letting windows do whatever along with uninstalling drivers etc to install new ones.

soon as i done a fresh install it was a flying machine

HoneyBadger · 27 Jun 2017 at 11:20

If your using win10, no reinstall needed at all, it will adjust. And it's rather good at it.

If you were using any other (read earlier) version of Windows, you would need to reinstall if you were changing Chipset. I.e Skylake to Skylake-E.

IvanDobskey · 28 Jun 2017 at 08:18

I didn't bother with a reinstall when moving from 2500k to a 6700k setup. No problems at all. Although I did have to get Microsoft to reactivate windows.

varkanoid · 28 Jun 2017 at 12:45

JoeDin2056 said:
If it does need to reinstall will it do like an in-house upgrade so I won't lose my files?

Dont bother re-installing windows unless you are not bothered about your current windows setup.