Swapping Mobo require clean install of windows?

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Dopefabulous

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Oct 31, 2011
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Hi:

I have planning to upgrade mobo, gpu, cpu, and ram but keep the hard drive and everything else. Question is since I'm using the same hard drive am I still required to do a clean install of windows?

Also, I have the window 7 upgrade version not the full version. Will I be able to reuse the upgrade version as long as install a full version of vista first. I read somewhere that the upgrade version is tied to the motherboard. Not sure if this is true. Thanks!
 
do a clean install. the hdd doesn't matter in the equation here.

new mobo and gpu will require appropriate drivers for each.

cpu not so much, as it will auto detect.

you'll need to contact MS to release your license key to reuse it.
 
If the chipsets are similar you probably wont need to reinstall windows, although I do still recommend it.

I have had success going from AMD 790FX to AMD 990FX, Intel 945 to Intel GMA chipsets, etc. The biggest factor is probably going to be to make sure your new motherboard is in AHCI mode if your old motherboard was in AHCI. (and vice versa)

The graphics card, ram and CPU do not matter.
 
Win 7 is very forgiving about changing motherboards, and will mostly work fine. If you are going Intel to Intel or AMD to AMD it'll almost certainly work. There's also a way to directly install from the Win 7 upgrade (without installing Vista first) - just google for it.
 
Depends if you have retail or OEM version. Retail your allowed to change hardware with out reactivating and OEM your going to have to get a new key.
 
Go ahead and try it, if it works, cool, if not, there's your answer.;)
 
You will need to reactivate. Call Microsoft, tell them your motherboard failed and you got as replacement a superior model.
 
leeleatherwood said:
If the chipsets are similar you probably wont need to reinstall windows, although I do still recommend it.

I have had success going from AMD 790FX to AMD 990FX, Intel 945 to Intel GMA chipsets, etc. The biggest factor is probably going to be to make sure your new motherboard is in AHCI mode if your old motherboard was in AHCI. (and vice versa)

The graphics card, ram and CPU do not matter.
Click to expand...

My Gigabyte MB has the following chipset:

North Bridge: AMD 785G
South Bridge: AMD SB710

Are there any particular chipsets that will work? Seems 785G's are no longer available. I have a complex setup and XP 32bit -- really want to avoid installing from scratch. And I can deal with MicroSoft. I get along great with their techs from India :)
 
Dopefabulous said:
Hi:

I have planning to upgrade mobo, gpu, cpu, and ram but keep the hard drive and everything else. Question is since I'm using the same hard drive am I still required to do a clean install of windows?

Also, I have the window 7 upgrade version not the full version. Will I be able to reuse the upgrade version as long as install a full version of vista first. I read somewhere that the upgrade version is tied to the motherboard. Not sure if this is true. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I have extensive experience with this situation. Here are the factors:

1) You can simply install the new hardware and use the same drive if you wish. The problem with this is that it will redetect all the hardware and change a number of settings in the registry. However, sometimes settings in the registry get muffled from this and it can result in decreased performance.

2) Win7 upgrade actually has the full version of Win7 since there really is no 'upgrade' version. You should not need Vista installed to actually use the upgrade. If its one of those picky scripts it may require you to put in the Vista CD to verify you have a valid copy of Vista, but you should never have to install it first. If it is the OEM version of Win7 it may require you to contact Microsoft to get a new key. I have never ever had a problem doing this. I used the same OEM version of Vista Ultimate through 5 complete upgrades and only had to call MS twice for a new key.

3) My suggestion would be to do a completely clean install. If may require you to call MS to get a new key, which is usually about a 10-15 min process at most (at least for me it was). It is well worth it to do the clean install. If it harps about wanting to see your Vista CD or install, I would simply call up MS and inform them you had to make a motherboard change on your current system. They tend to be fairly lenient with these things. Like I said, I went through 5 complete rebuilds using the same OEM Vista edition (all different Mobos, all different RAM, different CPU, different GPUs) and MS never gave me any hassles about it.
 
techbob said:
My Gigabyte MB has the following chipset:

North Bridge: AMD 785G
South Bridge: AMD SB710

Are there any particular chipsets that will work? Seems 785G's are no longer available. I have a complex setup and XP 32bit -- really want to avoid installing from scratch. And I can deal with MicroSoft. I get along great with their techs from India :)
Click to expand...

WinXP? 32bit?

I would install Win7.

Your computer will be thanking you later.
 
techbob said:
My Gigabyte MB has the following chipset:

North Bridge: AMD 785G
South Bridge: AMD SB710

Are there any particular chipsets that will work? Seems 785G's are no longer available. I have a complex setup and XP 32bit -- really want to avoid installing from scratch. And I can deal with MicroSoft. I get along great with their techs from India :)
Click to expand...

If you want to stay with XP 32 bit, you can just remove all drivers using driver cleaner or something similar, upgrade the motherboard, boot, then reinstall all your drivers from scratch. This should keep your running fine. However, I do strongly recommend doing a clean install whenever possible after upgrading. I also strongly recommend upgrading to Win7 from XP unless you have legacy software that requires XP.
 
I just did this from a p55 chipset i5-750 to a z86 chipset i7 2600k, once I installed the drivers on the mobo's cd for lan/chipset etc. everything was great! Big timesaver over a complete reinstall.
 
Hopefully not too little too late, but for what it's worth, I just switched from an MSI 990fxa-gd80 with fx-8120 and two 6970s to EVGA P67 FTW with i7-2600k and two gtx 570s...Pretty dramatic shift. I did not have to reinstall windows. Took about 3 minutes for it to detect all the new hardware and update all my drivers, then another bit to uninstall AMD drivers, and install Nvidia, manually. Now I can't even tell anything changed, except performance is insanely better. Benchmarks show normal/expected results. All I had to do, was reactivate Windows, since I'm using OEM. Took just a few minutes on the phone :)

However, it never hurts to reinstall Windows, but in my experience, it is not usually necessary, by any stretch. Only a few times has new hardware caused BSOD on boot, or other anomalies (usually bad performance), which required a reinstall. Worth a shot, either way, especially if you have an SSD and don't want to add to its wear/tear!
 
i went from p45 to x58. Had no issues. Did basically the same thing as statikregimen right there ^^^^^^
 
statikregimen said:
Hopefully not too little too late, but for what it's worth, I just switched from an MSI 990fxa-gd80 with fx-8120 and two 6970s to EVGA P67 FTW with i7-2600k and two gtx 570s...Pretty dramatic shift. I did not have to reinstall windows. Took about 3 minutes for it to detect all the new hardware and update all my drivers, then another bit to uninstall AMD drivers, and install Nvidia, manually. Now I can't even tell anything changed, except performance is insanely better. Benchmarks show normal/expected results. All I had to do, was reactivate Windows, since I'm using OEM. Took just a few minutes on the phone :)

However, it never hurts to reinstall Windows, but in my experience, it is not usually necessary, by any stretch. Only a few times has new hardware caused BSOD on boot, or other anomalies (usually bad performance), which required a reinstall. Worth a shot, either way, especially if you have an SSD and don't want to add to its wear/tear!
Click to expand...

Its not usually BSODs that are the problem its that the registry doesn't always update properly leaving old crap and degrading performance a little bit. With any upgrade you are pretty much going to get better performance, but that performance is even greater when doing a full clean install.
 
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