Solved Upgrading MB and CPU - Do I have to reinstall Win 7?

[1strail]

I have an ASUS M4A79T Deluxe MB with an AMD Phenom II Quad Core 965 Black Edition CPU. I now have the X6 fever and am ready to buy a new ASUS Crosshair IV (funny how roman number IV could be interchanged with the medical term for main lining??). My question is if I can just swap these out, plug in my current (non raid) 150G Raptor system drive and have it boot with my current OS (Win 7) installation intact.

I am also thinking about replacing the Raptor system drive with a solid state drive and would love recommendations for a ghost like program that will make an image of my current system drive and put right onto the new solid state drive so I do not have to spend hours, days, weeks, months, tweeking and getting my apps and settings just the way I want them.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[bigmck]

I have an ASUS M4A79T Deluxe MB with an AMD Phenom II Quad Core 965 Black Edition CPU. I now have the X6 fever and am ready to buy a new ASUS Crosshair IV (funny how roman number IV could be interchanged with the medical term for main lining??). My question is if I can just swap these out, plug in my current (non raid) 150G Raptor system drive and have it boot with my current OS (Win 7) installation intact.

I am also thinking about replacing the Raptor system drive with a solid state drive and would love recommendations for a ghost like program that will make an image of my current system drive and put right onto the new solid state drive so I do not have to spend hours, days, weeks, months, tweeking and getting my apps and settings just the way I want them.

Thanks for any suggestions.

My only experience with this is alot of years ago I took my PC to a shop to have a new CPU put in. I had to reinstall my programs again. I was told that most of the time when a CPU is replaced you have to reinstall programs.

 

[zigzag3143]

I have an ASUS M4A79T Deluxe MB with an AMD Phenom II Quad Core 965 Black Edition CPU. I now have the X6 fever and am ready to buy a new ASUS Crosshair IV (funny how roman number IV could be interchanged with the medical term for main lining??). My question is if I can just swap these out, plug in my current (non raid) 150G Raptor system drive and have it boot with my current OS (Win 7) installation intact.

I am also thinking about replacing the Raptor system drive with a solid state drive and would love recommendations for a ghost like program that will make an image of my current system drive and put right onto the new solid state drive so I do not have to spend hours, days, weeks, months, tweeking and getting my apps and settings just the way I want them.

Thanks for any suggestions.

You may be able to get it close, but not perfect. Since you are into performance a re-install is the best way to get it spot on. It is a PITA but worth it for that last bit.

BTW I would use Acronis true image for the image.


Ken

 

[1strail]

Thanks Ken - You confirmed what I think I already new and in the end, a clean install is always the best. Since I have a few boxes, I'll build it, set it next to the current one for a few weeks and just slowley transfer everything via Windows Easy Transfer.

 

[Bill2]

Swapping the mobo and the CPU means windows will be deactivated whether you have OEM win7 or retail. So you'll need to reactivate, I hope you have a retail/upgrade key.

Further, your current drivers wont work, so you'll have to replace those.

 

[1strail]

I do have the retail version, 3 user license. I am curious how MS identifes each activation, whether they do it using IP sub net or computer name. I once had to re-install because of something stupid that I did and had no problem re-activating.

Duh, I guess I new about the drivers being different, just spaced it for a second. After the re-install, windows did install updates right after install completed that were all MB specific drivers. I had not seen this before. After that restart, it then went on to install 53 more updates, mostly windows security and patch updates.

 

[Bill2]

Retai version 3 user license? You mean the home premium family pack?

 

[1strail]

Yes - That is what I mean