Format after motherboard swap?

Advice I've heard in the past has been that one should always reformat after switching motherboards. Normally I follow this advice. However, I just spent 2 full days earlier this month reformatting and re-installing everything, and would rather not have to do so again anytime soon. For more about my hardware woes, see this post.

What I'm wondering is: Can a system survive a motherboard swap without any reformatting? Is it just a matter of uninstalling the old drivers and installing the new ones, or is there something deeper to it? Is reformatting mostly just an OCD-ish preference, or does not doing so significantly affect system performance on the old install in a lasting way?

I'm so averse to reformatting that this issue, more than anything else, may help me decide whether to switch to Sandy Bridge or not.

If it is Windows 7, then you are probably good to go. Win 7 is very forgiving of hardware swaps, which makes re-installing unnecessary. If you are sticking with the same manufacturer (Intel to Intel, for example) then you will be almost guaranteed success.

That is good news, as I'm finally running Windows 7 Ultimate x64. Probably going to go from Asus (P6T Deluxe V2) to some other Asus board.

Thanks!

If you're keeping the same CPU I doubt there'll be a problem. I've read of some pretty drastic hardware changes recently that didn't need a reinstall. Of course doing a complete reinstall never hurts either, except for time.

I just swapped motherboards, R2E to R2E and Windows 7 booted fine.

the most you really would have to do is uninstall the chipset drivers if you were going from AMD to intel or intel to nvidia/amd to nvidia and vice versa.. if you are staying in the same motherboard family(e.g. intel to intel/amd to amd) then you should be perfectly fine.

Im not sure about this but you might have to re-activate your copy of Windows. It could read the new motherboard as a new computer entirely. Usually you can place a call into Microsoft and explain that youre just swapping out a defective motherboard and from what I hear, they usually let you slide. Not sure if that would happen though if you werent reinstalling Win7.

MacLeod said:

Im not sure about this but you might have to re-activate your copy of Windows. It could read the new motherboard as a new computer entirely. Usually you can place a call into Microsoft and explain that youre just swapping out a defective motherboard and from what I hear, they usually let you slide. Not sure if that would happen though if you werent reinstalling Win7.

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I did it with my work computer, and I just had to click reactivate. It connected to the activation server and worked just fine. Same deal for Office. Photoshop wasn't as friendly, and now wants me to deactivate it off the other computer that no longer exists due to a crappy motherboard...

NF980 chipset (nvidia AMD) to 790X (AMD) to 890FX (AMD) to x58 (Intel). Still on the exact same windows 7 installation as when I first built this computer. With no noticeable problems.

Swapped the HDDs on my 2 PCs (or swapping everything BUT the HDDs, depending on how you look at it).

Didn't screw up anything.

Tsumi said:

NF980 chipset (nvidia AMD) to 790X (AMD) to 890FX (AMD) to x58 (Intel). Still on the exact same windows 7 installation as when I first built this computer. With no noticeable problems.

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asyork said:

I did it with my work computer, and I just had to click reactivate. It connected to the activation server and worked just fine. Same deal for Office. Photoshop wasn't as friendly, and now wants me to deactivate it off the other computer that no longer exists due to a crappy motherboard...

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Ah music to my ears. Now I have even more reason to buy a new motherboard to replace my aging ASRock.

I think if you swap hardware after a certain length of time MS doesn't care. If you habitually make big changes that'll throw up a flag. But that's what the defective hardware explanation is for.

Good to know about Photoshop. I'll need to remember to do that before I upgrade soon.

I think you will run into issues if your install is an OEM license.

i recently did a major upgrade on my machine from a Q8200 on a 780i motherboard (nvidia chipset) to an i5-2500k on a P67 chipset (intel) i expected to have to reinstall windows 7 as with previous microsoft OSes based on NT they would usually freak out if you did major hardware changes esp changing manufactures of the chipset or CPU but it booted up installed drivers and is working like a champ to both my surprise and delight

ya i went from a i5-760 p55 chipset to sandy bridge i7-2600k p67 chipset no reinstall neccessary but i do think im gonna do a fresh install whn i get my m4

You do not have to re-install. And MS has always been forgiving of changing hardware. I have re-installed different hardware 5 times in 6 months and MS didn't care. Twice I had to call to get a new key, but that took a total of 15 minutes max and they didn't give me any hassle.

The only caveat about the whole affair is that sometimes the registray can get bogged down or borked. Occassionally you may run into some problems with older drivers still residing and causing some issues. But most of the time you should be fine. As long as you install all the drivers with the new motherboard, I doubt there should be any issues.

i replaced a motherboard using windows 7 and i didn't installed winodws 7 again. after a few montsh i was having problems so i decided to reinstall. called windows after reinstallation because i changed my motherboard and i got it activated again without problems.

I always reformat after a major upgrade like that. Especially with Windows 7 when it only takes about 15 minutes using a flash drive.

Ricedaddy said:

I always reformat after a major upgrade like that. Especially with Windows 7 when it only takes about 15 minutes using a flash drive.

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And then 3+ hours reinstalling all your programs, all the little tweaks and customizations/shortcuts you have, etc.

Ricedaddy said:

I always reformat after a major upgrade like that. Especially with Windows 7 when it only takes about 15 minutes using a flash drive.

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why reformat when you don't have to. its windows 7, not XP.. hell i still have a working copy of XP on one of my systems thats been through 7 system swaps since it was originally installed in 2004. never had a single problem with it, my windows 7 install has been through 3 systems and never had a single problem with it. i mean heck i haven't even seen windows 7 bsod on its own since i installed it. i've only seen 4 BSOD's and all 4 were caused by nvidia drivers failing when i was testing some overclocks.

Tsumi said:

And then 3+ hours reinstalling all your programs, all the little tweaks and customizations/shortcuts you have, etc.

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I re-install windows every time.
As for most programs, ninite installs chrome, and all the stuff that i need minus a few programs i install myself. Best thing about chrome is that it syncs everything with your google account. So you just log in and it installs all your addons and bookmarks, so thats all setup within seconds of going into chrome settings. Steam is backed up and i just install and replace the steam apps folders on my HDD. Win 7, i slipstream sp1 using rt7lite and do all my little tweaks, and as well as downloading a lot of the hot fixes using some program i can't remember (its an alternative to windows update). For me its worth it, takes 30 min tops if you already have the win7 disc with all the slipstreamed windows patches, which I admit takes time but only the first time since you can just continually slipstream the updates in each time. But you can just watch a show or go out into the internet during that first time creating a new dvd or flash drive installation. I personally never install programs through rt7lite cause they usually get dated by the time and its faster just to use ninite or manually install it.


Its worth it to me because i feel windows gets... cluttered every once in a while (especially xp) and i usually feel a bit of a boost from reinstalling. Although windows 7 not so much which is nice. In that case i do it because well I just don't want to risk incompatibilities etc. I'm sure you can do without re-installing but i see no reason not to with it taking 30 min tops for me and if something goes wrong its one less thing to have to rule out.

I went from intel q9550 to amd 1090t without reformatting - Windows 7 will handle pretty much anything.

I once upgraded my motherboard from a P55 intel chipset to the P67A chipset and Windows worked just fine.

This was done with the hard disks in a Raid 0 setup! I was extremely and pleasantly surprised. I've been using the system for over 9 months without a problem.

Tsumi said:

And then 3+ hours reinstalling all your programs, all the little tweaks and customizations/shortcuts you have, etc.

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I guess so, but I have a separate media drive that just put everything on, then load up steam, chrome, a couple of things like that.

I definitely don't take that long to install and tweak things anymore. Last time I formatted, it took around an hour or so, start to finish, programs and everything.

Ricedaddy said:

I guess so, but I have a separate media drive that just put everything on, then load up steam, chrome, a couple of things like that.

I definitely don't take that long to install and tweak things anymore. Last time I formatted, it took around an hour or so, start to finish, programs and everything.

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I really wish there was a fool-proof way to backup things like game settings, .ini changes, etc. Just backing up the Documents folder doesn't help because so much stuff gets tucked away in other placed (like AppData) and I have a bunch of tweaks to games and stuff I don't want to lose. I'd like to do a fresh install on my machine, but the idea of spending the next 2 months re-discovering things I had forgotten I had done or changed keeps putting me off. Too bad all programs don't have the equivalent of MozBackup.

Forceman said:

I really wish there was a fool-proof way to backup things like game settings, .ini changes, etc. Just backing up the Documents folder doesn't help because so much stuff gets tucked away in other placed (like AppData) and I have a bunch of tweaks to games and stuff I don't want to lose. I'd like to do a fresh install on my machine, but the idea of spending the next 2 months re-discovering things I had forgotten I had done or changed keeps putting me off. Too bad all programs don't have the equivalent of MozBackup.

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+1.