Does one have to reinstall win7 for every hardware change?

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dioxholster

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for instance months ago i replaced my video card but havent reinstalled windows. And i thought that was okay because all works fine. But in forums i read that its optimal to just reinstall.
 
The only time you should reinstall is if you replace the motherboard. Even then, if you run sysprep /generalize /shutdown, then replace the motherboard, then start it up, it's like you're reinstalling all drivers anyways. If you do that, you don't have to reinstall.

Otherwise, all hardware can be replaced without reinstalling. A best practice is to go into the device manager and remove the device, as well as any related software in add remove programs. Then shut down, add the new hardware, and start it up.
 
Nah, that's a minor upgrade. Reinstalling the entire OS is recommended when you swap out the entire motherboard itself - all the other components won't really cause much issues, even a CPU upgrade more than likely isn't anything at all.

But a new mobo typically is so different that a clean install is - again - the recommended course of action.

Just bumping a video card means new video drivers most likely and not much else going on.
 
If you've read anything stating that you should reinstall Windows just for a video card change, then what you've read is called "bad advice from morons" who have no idea what the hell they are talking about. Reinstalling your OS for a video card upgrade is insane and a huge waste of time. That's not to say that you can't run into issues which might necessitate a reinstall of the OS anyway from something as simple as a video card upgrade, but instances of that are extremely rare. Simply uninstall the old driver and install a new one. You can run driver sweeper / cleaner if you are paranoid but I've not needed to since Windows Vista came out. There are tons of performance numbers out there for you to check your system against to verify your card is performing as it should.
 
bigdogchris said:
The only time you should reinstall is if you replace the motherboard. Even then, if you run sysprep /generalize /shutdown, then replace the motherboard, then start it up, it's like you're reinstalling all drivers anyways. If you do that, you don't have to reinstall.

Otherwise, all hardware can be replaced without reinstalling. A best practice is to go into the device manager and remove the device, as well as any related software in add remove programs. Then shut down, add the new hardware, and start it up.
Click to expand...

Does sysprep still work that way with Win 7? I thought I looked into it a while back and it was totally changed.
 
Forceman said:
Does sysprep still work that way with Win 7? I thought I looked into it a while back and it was totally changed.
Click to expand...
From what I've seen of it while using it, yes. /generalize will strip out all hardware specific installations and security id's from the OS. It also resets activation. So if you use it on a retail install you'll have to input your key again. /oobe just takes you back to the screen where you do all of the initial setup stuff.
 
I have swapped MB on a vista machine without the need to reinstall. Vista just detected the new MB and loaded the approperiate drivers. I had to call MS to get a new activation key and that was as sooth as pie. If you are switching Chipset vendors (ie going from Intel to AMD or vice versa) then a clean install is recommended due to potential issues you might get with HDD corruption due to how each vendor's controller deals with the drive...
 
bigdogchris said:
The only time you should reinstall is if you replace the motherboard. Even then, if you run sysprep /generalize /shutdown, then replace the motherboard, then start it up, it's like you're reinstalling all drivers anyways. If you do that, you don't have to reinstall.

Otherwise, all hardware can be replaced without reinstalling. A best practice is to go into the device manager and remove the device, as well as any related software in add remove programs. Then shut down, add the new hardware, and start it up.
Click to expand...

I'm planning to replace my mobo this year for the first time since 2006 (Asus P5B-E, strategically updated over the years has stayed current enough for gaming and general use). I plan to use the sysprep method since Win7 is pretty great at sorting itself out.

I'll add one thing to this: I've also seen it suggested that you want to be sure that you're using the Microsoft AHCI storage drivers before making the change otherwise the system may not be able to boot. I haven't looked into the detail of whether /generalize will take care of this or not. When I make this attempt I'll be cloning a backup of my OS/Apps SSD, uninstalling Intel RST, sysprepping and then performing the surgery. Then I'll pick up the pieces in device manager with hidden devices revealed to see if any of the USB/1394 motherboard drivers were completely changed. My LAN, sound, GPU are all discrete cards and will be moving over.
 
It's interesting to see this topic in here today.

Just yesterday I replaced my motherboard (ECS a790gxm-ad3) that was giving me issues with an Asus M4A87TD/USB3 and everything worked right away. Windows 7 detected some changes after I booted up, reinstalled some drivers and upon the next reboot it was working perfectly fine as if nothing had changed.

I believe the fact the chipsets are similar have helped me though. Other than a few hardware functionalities, the same driver packages are used.
 
TheNuker said:
It's interesting to see this topic in here today.

Just yesterday I replaced my motherboard (ECS a790gxm-ad3) that was giving me issues with an Asus M4A87TD/USB3 and everything worked right away. Windows 7 detected some changes after I booted up, reinstalled some drivers and upon the next reboot it was working perfectly fine as if nothing had changed.

I believe the fact the chipsets are similar have helped me though. Other than a few hardware functionalities, the same driver packages are used.
Click to expand...

You don't have to reinstall even for a motherboard swap even when the chipset is different. At least not all the time. I've even swapped from Intel to NVIDIA chipsets and NVIDIA chipsets to Intel chipsets. In fact Intel ICHxR / ICH10R chipsets will even import an NVRAID array and allow you to read the disks. Though you may still need to reinstall the OS if the array is the boot drive. I always did.
 
Joe Average said:
Nah, that's a minor upgrade. Reinstalling the entire OS is recommended when you swap out the entire motherboard itself - all the other components won't really cause much issues, even a CPU upgrade more than likely isn't anything at all.

But a new mobo typically is so different that a clean install is - again - the recommended course of action.

Just bumping a video card means new video drivers most likely and not much else going on.
Click to expand...

With windows 7 even a motherboard upgrade doesn't need a reinstall, at most you'll have to sysprep.

Just a couple of weeks ago I moved a win 7 install from a p4 with via chipset and onboard video to an athlon 64/nforce3/geforce 6800.

I only had to sysprep, uninstall old drives and install new drivers.
 
I did say "recommended" - nobody in this thread so far stated it's a must or it's a requirement - it's simply the recommended course of action. ;)
 
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