installing new motherboard will win7 still boot?

[Ballie]

Hi,

I am installing a new motherboard in my mum's pc but using the same ram, cpu, dvd rom drive and Hard drive. Her current mobo also has built in graphics, sound and Lan.

My question is will her current hard drive with her win7 o/s boot on the new motherboard? I don't really want to have to do a complete re-install as she has loads of her stuff on there. Any tips would be helpful.

 

[yowanvista]

It will boot but you will have to reinstall the chipset drivers and probably reactivate Windows 7

 

[Ballie]

Thanks, I was hoping it will boot and then I could just install the new drivers from the cd that came with the board, I have no problems with reactivate Windows as I have a retail boxed copy.

 

[Ballie]

I just had a thought, if I booted with the win7 cd and then select to do a clean install on her current drive will it keep all the info thats on there now in a "windows old" file?

 

[gregrocker]

You cannot count on windows.old as a backup. Best to back up your files externally.

With a mobo change, Win7 might start up but it is not assured with major hardware changes. If it won't startup then you can use Paragon Adaptive restore CD to boot and "Adjust hardware" which will remove all drivers from Win7 so it auto-installs them at startup. Or you can Acronis 10+ with Universal Restore to back up an image which will remove all drivers before reimaging to HD.