Solved Switching to SB will need a re-install?

[Brewskie]

I've recently reinstalled Windows 7 x64 to a new SSD and it's running without a hitch, other than a little slow on the old nForce 780i mainboard and Q9550 chip. Tomorrow I'll be getting the new Sandy Bridge Asus P8P67 Deluxe and all the requisite stuff like a 2600K CPU and Corsair Vengeance DIMMS and this and that and the other. I am wondering whether I should, or will I NEED, to reinstall Windows once I put the SSD in the new system? And if I don't need to reinstall Windows7, will the OS require me to "phone home" so I have to jump through the hoops to show it's not pirated? Thanks!

 

[gregrocker]

To move Win7 to new hardware you'll need to SysPrep on the old hardware, removing all drivers and activation so it will auto-install the full set of drivers when moved to the new hardware, requesting several restarts - click the SysTray balloon to watch closely. SysPrep tutorial

You can reactivate with the same Win7 Product Key if you have retail (not OEM which cannot change mobos) Win7, which will require a robocall to MS to exchange a series of numbers to update the new hardware signature.

 

[Brewskie]

I don't think I have the OEM version. I bought Windows7 back when it was being released during their 1/2 off upgrade special. The box doesn't say anything about OEM, only that it's an upgrade for Vista. I'll give SysPrep a try and see how things go after the mainboard shows up tomorrow. In the mean time I have some readin to do on SysPrep...I've never read about it before. Thanks for the help! B

 

[gregrocker]

If your pre-sale retail copy was Upgrade version, you might have to do the quick registry edit here in order to activate Upgrade version on new hardware: Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version - Windows 7 Forums

Try activating after it's up and running to see for sure.

 

[Brewskie]

You mean to do the reg edit without going through the clean install, right?


I mean, I go through SysPrep, then once I'm on the new hardware I get all the updates from MS, then do the registry edit....right?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

The registry edit may be needed for activation AFTER the clean install is complete. You have 30 days to activate. Some people (me for instance) never have to do the registry edit.

 

[Brewskie]

Thanks Sonic, you guys have been a great help.

Cheers!

B

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Brewskie, welcome to Seven Forums!


It would probably be less trouble to do a clean install to the new H/W and a complete wipe of the SSD is the way to go, have a look at this information below.


After you have copied out or made back-ups of the data you need to save to external media, use Step One of this tutorial at the first link below to do a wipe (secure erase) to the entire Hard Disk Drive / Solid State Drive.

• Then if you do not want to create the new Windows 7 "System Reserved" partition use the outline in Step Two #2 to create, format and mark Active a single 100GB partition to do the installation to.
• If you do want to create the "System Reserved" partition use the outline in Step Two #3 to create, format and mark Active the System Reserved partition and then create and format the 100GB partition to do the installation to.

Either way, running the "clean all" then creating and formatting the partition(s) using diskpart will get you the best possible space to do a clean install of Windows 7 to; you can always extend the Windows partition to include the remaining unallocated space on the HDD / SSD or create additional Primary partitions or an Extended partition after the installation completes if you choose.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

DISKPART : At PC Startup

Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

 

[gregrocker]

You mean to do the reg edit without going through the clean install, right?


I mean, I go through SysPrep, then once I'm on the new hardware I get all the updates from MS, then do the registry edit....right?

You might need to do it. SysPrepping is just now being applied to the end-consumer here, with good results reported. We know it removes all drivers, hardware ID and activation, but need to verify if it saves the flag passed to allow activation of upgrade version.

You'll know if it rejects activation saying incorrect key provided. Then do the registry edit.

Please let us know how it goes so others can benefit.

 

[Brewskie]

My board just arrived.

I think I'll try the sysprep route first.

If I have any problems going that route then I'll do a clean install.

I'll return in a few hours with any notes.

Thanks!

B

 

[Brewskie]

I just finished reinstalling from scratch

Sysprep did something, just not sure what.

I kept getting a dialog that said something to the effect of "Windows will complete installing the software after you reboot" or something like that. I click the "OK" button, it reboots, and showed me that same dialog....over and over.

Finally I just gave up and reinstalled all over again. Which isn't a big deal really, since I only had Windows installed for a week or so on the SSD.

I haven't finished reinstalling everything, particularly the benchmark stuff.

If you're interested in seeing my Benchmark result from going to the SandyBridge i7 2600K from an nVidia XFX 780i Q9550 I'd be more than happy to share that with you here.

In the mean time, thanks for a great site that has great and valuable info on it

Cheers!

edit: btw....even though WEI, Windows Experience Index, doesn't really mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, it went from 5.9 to 7.8. The 7.8 came from the CPU, and everything else is 7.9, which will probable go up once I'm done playing with the OC.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Good to see you got it running and thanks for the update.

 

[gregrocker]

I believe that message means SysPrep is finished on the old hardware and ready to start up on the new.

Did you run SysPrep on the old hardware?

Did you then attempt to start up the HD on the new hardware?

 

[Brewskie]

I believe that message means SysPrep is finished on the old hardware and ready to start up on the new.

Did you run SysPrep on the old hardware?

Did you then attempt to start up the HD on the new hardware?

Yes, I ran Sysprep per the instructions then installed the mainboard, memory et al

Then booted it up and got that message

(after playing around in the EFI a bit lol)