Upgrading Motherboard. Is a reformat required?

[Erick Aguilar]

Hello guys.

As you can see, I'm planning on upgrading my motherboard from a gigabyte a75m-s2v to an ASUS F1A75-V EVO motherboard since it seems to have a better overclocking potential with the UEFI bios.
Now.. I don't really want to lose my data on my hard drive as I do not have another drive to transfer all my stuff into at the time. My question goes around what should be done when doing a motherboard swap, it's hard to think it would be as simple as just changing it, as the old one installed all the drivers from it into the hard drive. Should I uninstall them separately before the swap?

Activation is not a problem, a friend of mine gifted me a MAK key for windows 7 Professional,Ultimate/Enterprise. But my main concern is the loss of data, or repercussions of swapping a motherboard, and not formatting my drive for a clean install.

 

[Erick Aguilar]

Bringing up the thread~

 

[Dwarf]

There are 2 schools of thought on this subject; the first being that you will be OK just dropping the existing OS in as is and the second reinstalling the OS. I belong to the second category.

If you're not sure, just try it. Be sure to make a backup of any data that you don't want to lose first. If it works, all well and good. If not, reinstall (which is what I would recommend anyway).

 

[Erick Aguilar]

There are 2 schools of thought on this subject; the first being that you will be OK just dropping the existing OS in as is and the second reinstalling the OS. I belong to the second category.

If you're not sure, just try it. Be sure to make a backup of any data that you don't want to lose first. If it works, all well and good. If not, reinstall (which is what I would recommend anyway).

What would be the pros, and cons of both situations?

 

[Pedroc1999]

if you reinstall windows you will avoid any driver complications down the road but you lose your data if you dont back it up, if you dont reinstall there might be complications because you are changing motherboards but also moving makes of motherboards and they might not like each other(driver wise)

 

[bobkn]

There's a middle ground. Check out the sysprep utility. One of its uses is to genericize an existing Window installation to be installed across diverse hardware. Basically, it removes driver.

Whatever you do, get a backup drive and imaging software (or use the built-in Win7 imaging). Don't do anything as major as what you're considering without a backup. The chance for misadventure is much too great.

 

[Erick Aguilar]

Thank you for your replies.
Should I deactivate any programs that required activation? Such as office, or several game add ons that required activation?

 

[bobkn]

Thank you for your replies.
Should I deactivate any programs that required activation? Such as office, or several game add ons that required activation?

I's a good ideas. As far as I know, there is no deactivation for MS Office. The only software I've used that has explicit deactivation is Adobe Photoshop CS5.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

What would be the pros, and cons of both situations?

The problem is you don't know the chances of success if you don't do a clean install.

If you don't do a clean install and spend an hour troubleshooting, that's a success.

If you don't do a clean install and spend 3 or 4 days troubleshooting, that's probably a failure. At what point in those 3 or 4 days do you throw in the towel and do a clean install?

Looks like both boards have the same chipset, so maybe you won't have much trouble. Windows 7 can be very forgiving.

 

[DeaconFrost]

If they have the same chipset, your chances of success are high. However, with any major system change, you should always have a backup of your data "just in case". This way, you are fine no matter what happens with the new board. If the swap doesn't go smoothly, you can wipe the drive and do a clean install, knowing your data is safe.

For me personally, the clean install process takes me about 2 hours. I would always go that route just to ensure the system gets the newest drivers installed.

As for your key, technically, you aren't legitimately allowed to use that key unless you are associated with the organization who purchased it. Take that as you wish, but there may be a time where it stops working or won't reactivate, and you'll have little recourse except to buy a new key.

 

[Erick Aguilar]

If they have the same chipset, your chances of success are high. However, with any major system change, you should always have a backup of your data "just in case". This way, you are fine no matter what happens with the new board. If the swap doesn't go smoothly, you can wipe the drive and do a clean install, knowing your data is safe.

For me personally, the clean install process takes me about 2 hours. I would always go that route just to ensure the system gets the newest drivers installed.

As for your key, technically, you aren't legitimately allowed to use that key unless you are associated with the organization who purchased it. Take that as you wish, but there may be a time where it stops working or won't reactivate, and you'll have little recourse except to buy a new key.

Alright, seems the backup is the best way to go in terms of safety.
As for the key, it has 3500+ - activations remaining, so it'll be good in the long run.

 

[Kaktussoft]

The disk is a SATA disk correct? If so be sure in old and new bios SATA is set to AHCI. Or IDE... at least the same setting. I assume it's AHCI. Prior to replacing the mothherbord goto device manager. Then goto ATA/ATAPI controllers and expand it. right click the driver and do upgrade driver. Then search on my computer, then pick from list. Put a checkmark at "show compaitble hardware". Not select "standard ahci 1.0 serial ata controller" and install it.

This driver works with all motherboards and is almost the only real critical part! If computer boots after swapping motherboard you can delete all not needed drivers in device manager and reboot. Now you can install new motherboard drivers.

Always backup first (after changing sata driver)

It worked for me 10 times!

But micorosft recommends this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html

 

[Erick Aguilar]

The disk is a SATA disk correct? If so be sure in old and new bios SATA is set to AHCI. Or IDE... at least the same setting. I assume it's AHCI. Prior to replacing the mothherbord goto device manager. Then goto ATA/ATAPI controllers and expand it. right click the driver and do upgrade driver. Then search on my computer, then pick from list. Put a checkmark at "show compaitble hardware". Not select "standard ahci 1.0 serial ata controller" and install it.

This driver works with all motherboards and is almost the only real critical part! If computer boots after swapping motherboard you can delete all not needed drivers in device manager and reboot. Now you can install new motherboard drivers.

Always backup first (after changing sata driver)

It worked for me 10 times!

But micorosft recommends this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html

It seems sysprep might be the thing for me.
On the other hand.. it's been a while since I've reformatted my computer, it might be the best idea to do a reformat with all the new hardware.

 

[Kaktussoft]

The disk is a SATA disk correct? If so be sure in old and new bios SATA is set to AHCI. Or IDE... at least the same setting. I assume it's AHCI. Prior to replacing the mothherbord goto device manager. Then goto ATA/ATAPI controllers and expand it. right click the driver and do upgrade driver. Then search on my computer, then pick from list. Put a checkmark at "show compaitble hardware". Not select "standard ahci 1.0 serial ata controller" and install it.

This driver works with all motherboards and is almost the only real critical part! If computer boots after swapping motherboard you can delete all not needed drivers in device manager and reboot. Now you can install new motherboard drivers.

Always backup first (after changing sata driver)

It worked for me 10 times!

But micorosft recommends this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html

It seems sysprep might be the thing for me.
On the other hand.. it's been a while since I've reformatted my computer, it might be the best idea to do a reformat with all the new hardware.

sysprep is the most easiest and safest thing to do.
reformat has nothing to do with the problem.

 

[Erick Aguilar]

The disk is a SATA disk correct? If so be sure in old and new bios SATA is set to AHCI. Or IDE... at least the same setting. I assume it's AHCI. Prior to replacing the mothherbord goto device manager. Then goto ATA/ATAPI controllers and expand it. right click the driver and do upgrade driver. Then search on my computer, then pick from list. Put a checkmark at "show compaitble hardware". Not select "standard ahci 1.0 serial ata controller" and install it.

This driver works with all motherboards and is almost the only real critical part! If computer boots after swapping motherboard you can delete all not needed drivers in device manager and reboot. Now you can install new motherboard drivers.

Always backup first (after changing sata driver)

It worked for me 10 times!

But micorosft recommends this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html

It seems sysprep might be the thing for me.
On the other hand.. it's been a while since I've reformatted my computer, it might be the best idea to do a reformat with all the new hardware.

sysprep is the most easiest and safest thing to do.
reformat has nothing to do with the problem.

does sysprep reset the register as well? so is it doing an install, but just leaving my files/programs/folders?

 

[Kaktussoft]

Did you read and understand http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html?
It does answer your question

 

[Erick Aguilar]

Did you read and understand http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html?
It does answer your question

I understand the basic concept, but it opens up other questions..
This does -not- modify the information inside the hard drive that is not related to hardware changes correct?

The registry gets updated, so if I have messed with regedit, all the changes I've done will be erased as well?

If I can back up my information in another drive would it be better if I did a clean install of windows?

 

[Kaktussoft]

A clean install removes remains of unneeded drivers and applications. Applications you have ever installed are still in registry. A clean install makes you system maybe 5% faster... but I and companies never do it. It has nothing to do with your problem!

All driver specific updates in registry are gone after sysprep. All software will work and has settings as before! Except what is describes in the link I mentioned before

It's like you deleted all hardware stuff in "device manager" and did a "detect new hardware"

See it as a reinstall.....but only the hardware part

 

[Erick Aguilar]

A clean install removes remains of unneeded drivers and applications. Applications you have ever installed are still in registry. A clean install makes you system maybe 5% faster... but I and companies never do it. It has nothing to do with your problem!

All driver specific updates in registry are gone after sysprep. All software will work and has settings as before! Except what is describes in the link I mentioned before

It's like you deleted all hardware stuff in "device manager" and did a "detect new hardware"

See it as a reinstall.....but only the hardware part

okay, so I suppose only one of my applications won't be able to work after the registry gets ''restored''

another question.. which is really not related to this, but my boot times have been considerably slower than they were when I had initially installed windows, I have basically no start up applications other than oovoo,utorrent,rainmeter, and the realteck audio manager, but it still takes around 2 to 3 minutes for the login screen to appear, it used to take a lot less in the past, why could this be?

 

[Kaktussoft]

A clean install removes remains of unneeded drivers and applications. Applications you have ever installed are still in registry. A clean install makes you system maybe 5% faster... but I and companies never do it. It has nothing to do with your problem!

All driver specific updates in registry are gone after sysprep. All software will work and has settings as before! Except what is describes in the link I mentioned before

It's like you deleted all hardware stuff in "device manager" and did a "detect new hardware"

See it as a reinstall.....but only the hardware part

okay, so I suppose only one of my applications won't be able to work after the registry gets ''restored''

another question.. which is really not related to this, but my boot times have been considerably slower than they were when I had initially installed windows, I have basically no start up applications other than oovoo,utorrent,rainmeter, and the realteck audio manager, but it still takes around 2 to 3 minutes for the login screen to appear, it used to take a lot less in the past, why could this be?

But after logon (and then wait a few minutes so all services and startup stuff has been loaded/started).... everything is fine?

Try this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html ... also slow?