New motherboard, 4 hard drives.

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zachter

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Jul 4, 2013
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I am planning on upgrading my MOBO, CPU, and GPU all in one sweep soon. I currently have 4 hard drives connected in my current build. 1 120gb SSD with Windows 7 installed, and 3 standard 1TB 7200RPM hard drives used for storage and games.

My question is when I install the new MOBO and CPU is it worth it to format the SSD to re-install windows fresh or can window 7 handle a switch without issue.

My second question is... if I do format and re-install windows on my SSD for the new hardware will this cause issues with the storage drives?
(I have done a format before knowing that the storage drives can just be plugged in after the install and all of the data will still be there... I am just unsure if the new MOBO and CPU will have some sort of effect on the process since in all of my previous builds I only had 1HD)

Thanks!
 
Solution
Tradesman1
If you have any programs on them, that's the only way they will work is by just moving your OS drive, a new install would make programs basically worthless on the other three the registry wouldn't have any info on what or where anything was....the simple move and set the other three up as is i.e. old D: becomes D; in the new rig, E: is still E: etc
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rdc85

rdc85

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Apr 29, 2012
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the best way is do clean install of OS but it will may require u reinstall the game/soft...

so if u still had windows installation disk.. u can try just repair the OS first...

by plug/set the SSD & HDD, boot from win installation disk, select repair OS, it will scan old OS and try repair it...

if it successful u can use the old OS and all it's apps back, u just need re update/install the driver and do some house keeping (cleaning old unused driver)

 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

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Jun 5, 2013
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Just set the new mobo to AHCI (if that's how the SSD is set up, which I would think it is), make that your boot drive, and boot into Win, it will take it a short while to identify hardware and load drivers from it's store and then you are up and going....pull the latest mobo drivers from the mobo website (and BIOS if needed) and update, run a registry cleaner (Wise has a free one that's prettty good if you don't have one) to clean out te junk from old system, and then will want to check Win Update for anything from them, then activate if needed, may require a phone call to a toll free number - No problem ;) have had over a dozen go through this in the last month or so without a hitch
 
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zachter

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Jul 4, 2013
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Thank you both for your replies, but my main concern isn't the fresh install that was only part of the question. My MAIN concern is the 3 other 1TB storage drives and whether plugging them in with a fresh format and new MOBO will let me use them as they were on the previous setup before the hardware upgrades. I have all of the files backed up on externals and on an online server... but I would prefer not having to format all of the storage drives and put the files back on them(games aren't a concern either, i will uninstall and re-install them). The only drive with Windows software is the SSD drive which is hopefully the only drive that would need formatting.

 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
Jun 5, 2013
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If you have any programs on them, that's the only way they will work is by just moving your OS drive, a new install would make programs basically worthless on the other three the registry wouldn't have any info on what or where anything was....the simple move and set the other three up as is i.e. old D: becomes D; in the new rig, E: is still E: etc
 
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zachter

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Jul 4, 2013
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Thanks a ton!
 
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