Maintaining Windows 7 Install and Swapping Hardware

[Balthazar2k4]

I have a bit of a dilemma on my hands at the moment. I have a media server that needs more processing power and my wife's computer that has tons of processing power, but is only used for Facebook. Both machines have Windows 7 installed. What I would like to do is swap the motherboard/cpu/ram for the units and leave the drives as is. I realized what I am saying and that Windows may/will freak out. Especially given that one machine is an AMD A10 and the other a i7-980X. Completely different platforms. Is this something that is possible without having to perform clean OS installs on both machines? Is there a way to force Windows to reset its device drivers back to default?

I have done many searches on this topic and I have come about nothing but conflicting answers. I value the experience on this forum and am looking for some perspective.

Thanks.

 

[zero2dash]

I've done motherboard/cpu swaps without reinstalling Win7 and haven't had any issues. I've even went so far as to go from an X58 -> SR-2 -> P67 (and people typically say swapping chipsets cause problems). I can see that possibly if you're going from AMD to Intel (or vice versa) but most of the Intel chipset drivers work for a lot of different chipsets anyway.

Best thing to do is fire it up at least 1 more time on the old hardware, remove any drivers/apps that relate to that specific hardware, and then shut it down. Obviously when you fire it up again under the new hardware you're gonna have to install drivers and you might have to re-activate but otherwise it should work fine. If you were really paranoid about it you could always run sysprep and choose to generalize the hardware; the step for that would be:
-turn on old machine, remove all drivers
-run sysprep OOBE and choose to /generalize and choose to quit or shut down (rather than restart, because sysprep will run on the next boot)
-hook up the new hardware, turn on and let sysprep do it's thing

Keep in mind you can only run the /generalize flag 3x on any given Windows install, so don't do it repeatedly. If you blow the counter, the sysprep will fail and cause you other issues and generally then require a complete reinstall from scratch.

Since you're going AMD to Intel, I would recommend the sysprep /generalize method. /generalize will cause it to re-detect hardware and install the drivers that it can. More info on sysprep (if you're not familiar with it).

 

[Balthazar2k4]

Thanks zero2dash for the response. That is basically the thought I was going to apply. I will strip both machines down driver wise and do the swap. I'll just keep my fingers crossed as I really don't want to have to do both machines from scratch.

 

[Balthazar2k4]

I've done motherboard/cpu swaps without reinstalling Win7 and haven't had any issues. I've even went so far as to go from an X58 -> SR-2 -> P67 (and people typically say swapping chipsets cause problems). I can see that possibly if you're going from AMD to Intel (or vice versa) but most of the Intel chipset drivers work for a lot of different chipsets anyway.

Best thing to do is fire it up at least 1 more time on the old hardware, remove any drivers/apps that relate to that specific hardware, and then shut it down. Obviously when you fire it up again under the new hardware you're gonna have to install drivers and you might have to re-activate but otherwise it should work fine. If you were really paranoid about it you could always run sysprep and choose to generalize the hardware; the step for that would be:
-turn on old machine, remove all drivers
-run sysprep /generalize choose to shut down rather than restart (sysprep will run on the next boot)
-hook up the new hardware, turn on and let sysprep do it's thing

Keep in mind you can only run the /generalize flag 3x on any given Windows install, so don't do it repeatedly. If you blow the counter, the sysprep will fail and cause you other issues and generally then require a complete reinstall from scratch.

Sysprep. That's what I was trying to remember. Will Sysprep have any impact on installed software or configuration? I am assuming it is strictly a hardware strip.

Edit: Never mind. Google is my friend. I guess I will give it a try and cross my fingers (and maybe toes too). Thanks again zero2dash.

 

[zero2dash]

Sysprep. That's what I was trying to remember. Will Sysprep have any impact on installed software or configuration? I am assuming it is strictly a hardware strip.

Yes, it leaves software alone.
Typically off the shelf systems are built and then the manufacturer runs sysprep oobe which is what comes up on 1st boot when you first get the machine. It boots and all their "bundleware" is still on there. In your case, your apps/games and whatnot will still be there.

Regarding configuration, if you mean overall Windows config like network/display settings and whatnot, yes, that will have to be redone. Those settings are not saved (and are basically wiped out by the sysprep command).