Im thinking about upgrading my ASUS M3N72-D to a ASUS M4A89GTD i currently have Win7 Pro installed and im wondering if i can just connect my hard drive to the mobo as normal.
im not sure if windows locks your windows serial to the motherboard serial is this still true ? or was it never true.
Short answer No. Clean Install required,
There are methods, such as Acronis Plus add on (which is an additional purchase alongside Acronis) that is capapble of imaging and re-imaging to dis-similar hardware.
Although others may disagree, I would not even attempt it.
General rule IMO, New MOBO= clean instal.
Far less problems, and you'll be better off in the long run.
I assume you have a Pro retail version. Then a reinstall should be no problem if you uninstall it on the old mobo. If, however, you have an OEM version, the OS cannot be moved to another mobo because that is considered another machine. But you can always try to call MS for a revalidation.
You can always try starting up your WIn7 after installing new mobo to see if it will start, change out the drivers and run ok.
I sometimes move HD's to another machine and Win7 has always started and run fine.
Of course a clean reinstall is always a good thing (and easy with Win7) however I am not so sure that it is such a hard requirement with Win7.
Just my opinion.
Ok thanks i want to reinstall really just i didnt know if my serial would work again.
You can reinstall retail as often as you like, migrate to whatever machine you like (as long as it isn't OEM) for the life of the OS.
Just be sure to save your Product Key, as any installer for your version will work.
Quote