Motherboard and cpu swap question .

mitsosvazelos84 · Feb 7, 2015

Hello guys , as the title says , I am about to swap my motherboard , my cpu and ram.
My current system is ;

Mobo ; Msi Fm2 A75ma E35
Cpu ; AMD X4 750K
Ram ; Kingston hyperx blue 8gb
Gpu ; Giagbyte r9 270x windforce
And a 500gb hdd ,
As far as the hardware that matters .

And my upgrades will be ;
Msi h97 gaming 3 motherboard ,
Intel i5 4460 cpu and
8gb of kingston hyperx fury black ram ( will be insatlled when it ships , but that won't be a problem , right ? ) .

My question is ; Will I be able to install the new hardware , boot to bios , tweak the settings and then just boot to windows normally without anything changed , as far as my data goes ?
I've heard that in order to do this swap , you will need to re install windows adn on top of that , you will loose all of the data in the drive used to install windows ?

And if that is true , what should I do to get my system excactly as it was , data wise ( programs , desktop appearance , windows settings etc. ) .

Thank you in advance ,
mitsosvazelos84

Dark Lord of Tech · Feb 7, 2015

You will need to perform a clean install , the boards are totally different , there will be driver conflicts.

Backup and clean install.

USAFRet · Feb 7, 2015

Yes, you will need to reinstall the OS and applications.

For "excactly as it was", Windows Easy Transfer is as close as you're going to get.

mitsosvazelos84 · Feb 7, 2015

Ok , so at wht point do I re-install my data ?
Of course I will have to install windows first , I guess I will install my backup ( without windows and drivers of coure ) when I'm done with bios and settings ?

One last question , will my pc be the same ( desktop appearance and games etc. ) after doing the clean win7 install and installing my backup , considering the fact that win7 doesn't change much and that my backup has been copyied from the machines pre-swap condition ?

mitsosvazelos84

USAFRet · Feb 7, 2015

mitsosvazelos84 :

What type of 'backup' is this?

mitsosvazelos84 · Feb 7, 2015

Everything on the pc stored on another hardware in an other system . I am wondering what will happen if i copy this backup back to my pc without the windows file and the drivers ... will it be as it was before the swap ?

USAFRet · Feb 7, 2015

mitsosvazelos84 :

Not the way you're thinking, no.
New OS and new applications - all you're copying back over is your personal data. Doc/music/video/etc.

As mentioned, Windows Easy Transfer is as close as you're going to get.

mitsosvazelos84 · Feb 7, 2015

Will my games be intact ? Levels , unlocks , weapons etc ? I guess so

USAFRet · Feb 7, 2015

mitsosvazelos84 :

Assuming you save the right data, and copy it back to the right place...probably.

mitsosvazelos84 · Feb 7, 2015

Ok thanks . swaping hardware > installing windows again > tweaking > installing my backup again , is the proper way to do it , am I right ?

mitsosvazelos84

USAFRet · Feb 7, 2015

mitsosvazelos84 :

Yes, depending on exactly what you mean with "installing my backup again".

mitsosvazelos84 · Feb 7, 2015

Backup= my EVERYTHING without drivers and windows , from a drive that i will use as a backup ( not connected to the pc )

USAFRet · Feb 7, 2015

mitsosvazelos84 :

'Everything' is a pretty broad word.
Again, it depends on how this 'backup' was created.

mitsosvazelos84 · Feb 7, 2015

By copying my files to an external drive .
By everything I mean my user file ( pics , vids , docs , ), Proggrams x86 file and Proggrams file ( Games and apps ) . Yes Proggrams x86 is a different file than Proggram . Do you understand my plan now ( no offence

)

USAFRet · Feb 7, 2015

mitsosvazelos84 :

OK, got it.
Your files (pics, docs, vids) yes.
Steam games, yes. See this: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

Your Programs, categorically no.

They will need to be reinstalled. You can't just copy them back over.

mitsosvazelos84 · Feb 7, 2015

Really ? Stuff like fraps and origin will be gone ?
And so will bf4 ?

EDIT: Do I really need to follow these steps in the link to steam you gave me ?
Can't i just copy them ?

USAFRet · Feb 7, 2015

mitsosvazelos84 :

I believe Origin has a similar function to the above mention Steam thing.
But the actual Origin and Steam clients, along with any other programs, will have to be reinstalled.

mitsosvazelos84 · Feb 7, 2015

Lol I forgot : Can't I just create a windows backup , clean install and then use the backup to get evrything back ?

Sorry for bothering you with so many question but I want to know how do this best

USAFRet · Feb 7, 2015

mitsosvazelos84 :

Nope. A 'Windows Backup' will be a backup of the current system. With the AMD hardware and settings.
That backup on the new Intel platform won't work.

mitsosvazelos84 · Feb 7, 2015

Ok . I am saving a Windows Easy transfer file to my hdd now , this is about windows settings , the one I'm bored to tweaking most . I have a list progrmas to re download , and I will make my backup now . If my backup drive file doesn't restore everything , I will manually download apps , as theese are the ones that will be lost .
What about that ?

USAFRet · Feb 7, 2015

mitsosvazelos84 :

Yes, that should work.

mitsosvazelos84 · Feb 7, 2015

Ok thank you for the help , hope everything turns out fine

USAFRet · Feb 7, 2015

mitsosvazelos84 :

Good luck.

hwc1954 · Feb 7, 2015

I'm not sure about what you are being told. If you are keeping the same Windows version unchanged and not swapping to a new disk drive, the computer should boot normally after swapping a MB and processor. You don't have to reinstall anything.

You'll probably get some "installing device drivers" notices and so forth. No different than if you plugged in a USB drive for the first time. No big deal.

You'll probably be asked to reactivate Windows. Just type in your product key from your Windows package (or top of the computer case if it was OEM). It'll reactivate the license online.

You'll be asked to reactivate Microsoft Office apps. Won't need to enter anything.. Just click OK and it'll do it online.

Probably have to re-enter a product key for Norton Anti-virus.

I just swapped motherboard and processors, leaving the drives the same. It was no big deal. Much much less hassle than upgrading a disk drive.

USAFRet · Feb 7, 2015

hwc1954 :

And quite often (usually?) when changing platforms....that does not work.
I've personally seen it go both ways.

And reading others experiences in here...the same.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Motherboard and cpu swap question .

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