Windows 7 - Win7 and New MOBO

I am about to get a new MOBO and set it up. My old ones going to be used in a PC for my daughter. My question is can I just switch it out and use it with my current HD without a reload or wil I get problems?

first let me get this out of the way.

If you want nearly guaranteed "no issues" you should always reformat a HDD when swapping out the motherboard.

now I will talk from personal experience. To me it seems to depend on your north and south bridge. when i swap motherboard but keep the bridges the same it seems to actually work out for myself. I am able to boot windows up and it stays happy to a degree (requires re-install of several drivers)

however I'm not run of the mill and tend to swap motherboards a couple of times a cycle. my guess is that you are upgrading from something relatively older. in this case my suggestion is to reformat, backup everything you can and give yourself a nice clean install.

I could not have stated it better - forget trying to 'make it work" and format and reinstall.

You'll have less chances for problems down the road.

FWIW - I tried this exact thing with Vista, moving from a Tyan Trinity 510 mobo (Via North and South chipsets) to an MSI (which used a Via South, I think, and Intel North) and Vista simply would not boot. Called M$ and they confirmed - format and reinstall was my only option.

From personal technical experience, if your chipset brand/model is the same or similar, you won't have to do anything in order to swap HD to another board/system.

But if your previews board has e.g. VIA chipset, and the new one has INTEL, you'll never boot, you'll keep getting BSODs. Although, I'm not sure it will happen to Windows 7, at least it happens to XP and Vista.

The workaround to that is as it was for the previews OSes:

Before you remove the disk from the old motherboard, goto Device Manager and expand your IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. You will find inside several listings like for example:

ATA Channel 1
ATA Channel 2
etc..
Intel 82801G Ultra ATA Storage Controller <-- this is the key to your problem

You should uninstall the drivers for your IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers before you transfer your HD to the other motherboard.
I also advice you to go to System Devices and delete/uninstall everything regarding your chipset...e.g. Intel PCI Bridge or VIA PCI Bridge etc.

This method is 99% guaranteed that you won't need to reinstall/repair your OS after moving your disk.

Of course, with computers you never know so...good luck

The problem there is "99%" - there leaves 1% room for error.

Also, you have a lot of crap that is no longer in use in your registry re: hardware that no longer exists, *and* you have your HAL trying to load those devices at startup, at the very least scanning for them.

Best bet, and *especially* for novice users - backup and format.

of course backup and format is always the best way, but in cases where you have lots of stuff to reinstall, or missing programs and applications that can't find again to reinstall as well as many other reasons that you don't want to go through a clean install, you can follow my guide above.

In cases like these, for over 50 clients of mine this method has worked. If you hesitate, first backup, don't format though. Try installing the hard disk on the new MOBO after you have backed up your files, and see if my method works. If not, it's always good you have a backup huh?

to tell you the truth, I'm 100% sure this will work, not only 99%. I just don't want you to blame me in the worst case it doesn't, hence the 1%.

And besides, even if it doesn't work, your data isn't lost. You can always do a second install on the same disk without deleting the first, and move your files/documents to the new installation afterwards and delete the old installation files.

In my personal computer, i like to keep two hard drives to store everything important/files one one (storage) and the os and programs on the other.

When it comes to mother board swapping, it does depend on north/south bridges... i had no trouble switching from a 680i, to a 780i... but they were both nvidia boards... IBM makes you regret swiching, it just really ... depends! If you feel like you want to try it anyway- erase any drivers you have currently installed before the swap, i reccomend driver cleaner.