Can I swap motherboards without re-installing Win7?

[bbinnard]

My current system is Win7-64 SP1 running in an ASUS P6T motherboard with i7-920 & 6GB RAM. My boot drive is a Samsung 840-Pro SSD.

I'm planning on building a new system with an ASUS P877-M board running an i7-3770S with 8GB RAM so I can get SATA3, USB3, a faster CPU, and a smaller form factor system. My thought was to just move all my drives as-is from my current system to the new one.

But if I do that will the new system boot OK? I'm not sure what dependency Win7 has on chipsets, or if there will be a difference (from the Win7 point of view) between my current i7-920 CPU and the i7-3770S my new system will have.

I am aware that Win7 itself will require re-validation because of Microsoft's fear that their precious OS has been installed on a 2nd system, but I have already checked with them on that and verified that my existing Product Key can be re-validated ok.

 

[DeaconFrost]

You can, with some prep and use of Sysprep, but my question would be why would you want to? A clean install doesn't take very long if you plan ahead, and it will leave your system running as efficiently as possible. It gives you the best chance of having updated drivers and apps, and eliminates some big variables in case something isn't working properly in the new system.

Besides, you'd be backing up your data regardless, so why fear/avoid the clean install?

 

[bbinnard]

I've not used Sysprep before so will see what I can find out about that.

The problem with a clean install is, of course, re-installing all my software and then tweaking it to be able to access where all my data is. My current system has 2 SSD's (boot and temp etc.) and 2 HDD's (data of various kinds) with some Junction Links connecting everything. Recreating this would not be a fun task.

Since my boot drive is an SSD I don't worry about fragmentation. I've given up worrying about the ongoing growth of WINSXS since my SSD has enough room for that. I don't plan on migrating to Win8 any time in the foreseeable future and my current OS works just fine.

I can always do a clean install if for some reason I can't get my current boot drive to work, but I really don't want to do this.

 

[DeaconFrost]

This is one of the reasons I am a firm believer in the K.I.S.S. principle.

 

[Layback Bear]

I also believe in a clean install but if you choose different this should help.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html

 

[Mark Phelps]

Macrium Reflect (as does Acronis) sells a product that allows you to migrate an existing Win7 install to a new PC. You need a CD or folder of the drivers needed for the new PC, but with a motherboard, those typically come on CD.

To use it, you connect the old drive to the new PC, Boot from the MR CD (you have to burn this if you download their product) and then select the option to install to new hardware. IT prompts you for the driver CD and replaces all the old drivers with new drivers -- for that PC. When you reboot, your PC is ready to go.

It's not free but it can save a lot of work and hassle reinstalling lots of software.

 

[DeaconFrost]

It's not free but it can save a lot of work and hassle reinstalling lots of software.

I wouldn't say it saves work and hassle...it just brings a different set of work and hassles. Anytime you migrate an install, there is still plenty of cleanup work to do, testing to be done, and drivers to install. None of that even accounts for the random issues or troubleshooting you may have to do, since it wasn't a clean install.

That's why you keep your installs relatively simple, your data backed up, and your drivers handy, so a clean install is not a big issue. It shouldn't be, if planned out. I can do mine in about 2 hours time, and the end result is a much cleaner, better performing system.

 

[Kaktussoft]

My current system is Win7-64 SP1 running in an ASUS P6T motherboard with i7-920 & 6GB RAM. My boot drive is a Samsung 840-Pro SSD.

I'm planning on building a new system with an ASUS P877-M board running an i7-3770S with 8GB RAM so I can get SATA3, USB3, a faster CPU, and a smaller form factor system. My thought was to just move all my drives as-is from my current system to the new one.

But if I do that will the new system boot OK? I'm not sure what dependency Win7 has on chipsets, or if there will be a difference (from the Win7 point of view) between my current i7-920 CPU and the i7-3770S my new system will have.

I am aware that Win7 itself will require re-validation because of Microsoft's fear that their precious OS has been installed on a 2nd system, but I have already checked with them on that and verified that my existing Product Key can be re-validated ok.

Just do the following with win7 on old motherboard:

• uninstall all graphics, sound, network configuration programs, cpu monitor programs, mouse programs, keyboard programs. All what is special for your current hardware
• upgrade using device manger your gpu to "standard vga"
• device manager->uninstall network driver, wifi driver, usb stuff, webcam etcetera... all stuff special for your current hardware
• In device manager ->IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers: You see SATA AHCI controllers? upgrade to standard AHCI 1.0 serial ATA controller.=>this is the most import part!! Without a working disk driver you get stop 7b on reboot. Be sure new motherboard is also in AHCI mode
• In device manager: uninstall all usb stuff

All driver upgrades should be done using: find on my computer->pick from list. Put checkmark at "compatible hardware".
Don't reboot after each step!

All is very clean now. Shutdown, power off. Now replace motherboard and cross your fingers. If system boots fine with new motherboard let win7 find drivers. Of course install network driver first. use motherboard CD to install chipset drivers. Check device manager if all is fine

 

[braddersz]

You may well need to Re-Activate Windows Registration. If windows notices a big hardware change. If online Activation fails.

Use Telephone Activation.

 

[bbinnard]

Kaktussoft - thanks for your detailed reply. After reading through it I think I will be OK without doing a lot of what you suggested:

1. My current system has a Logitech keyboard and a Kensington trackball and specific drivers for each. I'll put these on the new motherboard when I boot so there should not be a problem with either. Plus, I know both work OK when booting in Safe Mode, so I always have that as a backup.

2. Since my current system boots off an SSD my bios is set to AHCI mode and I will ensure the new BIOS gets set that way too before I boot.

3. My current system includes both the Intel ICH10R SATA AHCI controller and the Standard AHCI controller so I am already covered there.

4. The network "card" on the new board is the same as the oine in my current board so that should be OK.

5. My current system does have a PCI/USB3 adapter card driving a USB 2/3 multi-function card reader (P6T board is only USB2), but this device has it's own driver CD which I have. Since the new motherboard has USB3 included I may not install this reader on the new system, but if I do I have the driver CD to take care of it.

6. The new system has an nVidia graphics card that is supported by the same nVidia driver I am currently running, so this should work OK. If not I can always go into Safe Mode and update it.

 

[braddersz]

Kaktussoft - thanks for your detailed reply. After reading through it I think I will be OK without doing a lot of what you suggested:

1. My current system has a Logitech keyboard and a Kensington trackball and specific drivers for each. I'll put these on the new motherboard when I boot so there should not be a problem with either. Plus, I know both work OK when booting in Safe Mode, so I always have that as a backup.

2. Since my current system boots off an SSD my bios is set to AHCI mode and I will ensure the new BIOS gets set that way too before I boot.

3. My current system includes both the Intel ICH10R SATA AHCI controller and the Standard AHCI controller so I am already covered there.

4. The network "card" on the new board is the same as the oine in my current board so that should be OK.

5. My current system does have a PCI/USB3 adapter card driving a USB 2/3 multi-function card reader (P6T board is only USB2), but this device has it's own driver CD which I have. Since the new motherboard has USB3 included I may not install this reader on the new system, but if I do I have the driver CD to take care of it.

6. The new system has an nVidia graphics card that is supported by the same nVidia driver I am currently running, so this should work OK. If not I can always go into Safe Mode and update it.

I would still recommend uninstalling, and reinstalling new drivers using the Disc that comes with the board, Perhaps check the Manu's website for the latest drivers.

 

[Kaktussoft]

My current system includes both the Intel ICH10R SATA AHCI controller and the Standard AHCI controller so I am already covered there.

Both are in device manager? Please post screenshot

Post screenshot of disk management as well please with all fields visible

 

[Kaktussoft]

Only real problem is SATA driver. If you have an INTEL driver installed and new motherboard has non intel... it bsod's in stopcode 7B. Using tricks you can insert standard sata driver hower. (very difficult). Also important is uninstall special CPU software.

USB, network card... can be fixed later.
gpu problem... boot in safe mode and uninstall driver.

To recover the usb mess.... uninstall all usb serial bus-controllers stuff in device manager and let windows discover it after reboot.

 

[bbinnard]

C: is current boot SSD; X: is old SSD currently used for temp etc.; F: & G: are HDDs for data/backup/etc.

 

[Kaktussoft]

View attachment 252797

View attachment 252798

C: is current boot SSD; X: is old SSD currently used for temp etc.; F: & G: are HDDs for data/backup/etc.

Device manager looks fine.

"system reserved" on disk 0 and disk 3 can be deleted. Normally it's active and has bootmenu and bootmgr. Because you boot from C (marked system) they are useless! After deletion you can add their space to C and X. You can do this using Partition Wizard Home (move/resize partition). Althouth it's only 100MB you win.

Only C is marked active .. so even if you swap disk cables.... it can only boot from C. Great!

Did you place pagefile on F on purpose?

 

[Kaktussoft]

After swapping motherboards:

• All disks have the disk signature as before. No matter in which order you connect them windows can uniquely identify them
• Start sector of each partition will still be the same. All partitions will have correct drive letter.

Drive letters are maintaned in registry of OS. In registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices it's defined. It's a combination of disksignature+startsector. Partition Wizard "move-action" modifies the start sector ... and adjusts this key.

 

[bbinnard]

Thanks again for your helpful reply.

I am aware of the 100MB partition on disks 0 and 3. My understanding was that this got created when Win7 gets installed and was needed to be kept in order for the Win7 disk recovery function to operate. Originally drive 3 was my Win7 boot device but I cloned it onto Disk 0 when I started to get short of free space due to the ever-increasing size of WINSXS. (WINSXS is my biggest complaint about Win7, but that's a different issue.)

I used to run with no paging file at all but I read somewhere that the absence of a page file can (somehow) reduce Win7's efficiency. Even though this made no sense to me I put a paging file out there simply because I have the space available to do so.

My new system will have 8GB RAM instead of the 6 I have now so I'm probably going to remove the page file again.

I took the Active tag off my old boot drive because i found out only the low-level boot manager sees this and it's best to have only your real boot drive marked as Active. I used to think Active meant active (silly me!) and I was a bit hesitant to take that parameter off a drive that was currently active/running, but as you know doing that had no effect on anything.

My sense is that most people do not understand what the Active parameter really means.

 

[Kaktussoft]

In http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

bcdedit/enum all>bcd.txt

post file c:\windows\system32\bcd.txt , afterwards you can delete that file. I will look at it if there are no references to system reserved.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/330-system-protection-turn-off.html
Are all settings there as expected? They are disabled sometimes after cloning. Disable it on ghost disks if listed there

 

[Mark Phelps]

It's not free but it can save a lot of work and hassle reinstalling lots of software.

I wouldn't say it saves work and hassle...it just brings a different set of work and hassles. Anytime you migrate an install, there is still plenty of cleanup work to do, testing to be done, and drivers to install. None of that even accounts for the random issues or troubleshooting you may have to do, since it wasn't a clean install.

So you say (and generally, I agree), but I actually DID this on a Win7 PC and not only did I have NO cleanup to do, it created NO new work or hassles.

The MR tool found all the drivers and installed them for me. There were no drivers I had to hunt down or install myself. After 15 minutes, the PC was up and running and now, months later, there has still not been a single problem.

And yeah, it surprised me to as, before I did that, I expected the kinds of problems you mention.

Not saying this is always going to be the case, but it my case, it DID save a lot of work and hassles.

 

[bbinnard]

Results of bcdedit:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
path \bootmgr
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
default {current}
displayorder {current}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7 Home Premium (recovered)
locale en-US
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {2241f931-40fe-11e2-b762-806e6f6e6963}

Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {2241f931-40fe-11e2-b762-806e6f6e6963}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows 7 Home Premium (recovered)
locale en-US
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
debugoptionenabled No

Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=C:
path \boot\memtest.exe
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-US


I normally run with System Protection off because I am careful about what I download & run and in general like to have the minimum number of system tasks running. But lately I've been running with it on.