Switching motherboard, but keeping same boot and storage drives

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aalex2

Commendable
Dec 17, 2016
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0
1,510
Hey guys,
So I’m moving my components to a new case and decided to upgrade my motherboard along the way. I’m just wondering if I’m good to just plug in my 3 drives into any SATA slot on the new motherboard and I’ll be good and boot into windows right away with all my data, or if there’s some process I need to do.

I’d prefer to not have to format any of the drives.
 
Solution
USAFRet
1. What OS is this? If Win 10: Read and do this before you change any parts:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3164428/windows-build-1607-activation.html

If something else, Activation may be an issue.

2. There is absolutely zero guarantee that your OS drive will actually boot up upon seeing the new hardware. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not.
Sometimes it does, but with weird issues later.
Win 10 is better then previous version, but this is no guarantee.

I did this just today with my wife's system. On power up, it pondered on the situation for about 5 minutes, and then booted.
However, subsequent power ons take a lot...
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USAFRet

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Mar 16, 2013
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1. What OS is this? If Win 10: Read and do this before you change any parts:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3164428/windows-build-1607-activation.html

If something else, Activation may be an issue.

2. There is absolutely zero guarantee that your OS drive will actually boot up upon seeing the new hardware. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not.
Sometimes it does, but with weird issues later.
Win 10 is better then previous version, but this is no guarantee.

I did this just today with my wife's system. On power up, it pondered on the situation for about 5 minutes, and then booted.
However, subsequent power ons take a lot longer than they should. ~2-3 mins, when it should be ~20 seconds on the SSD.
I'm seriously considering a full wipe and reinstall.

Other systems I've tried this on...no boot at all. Full reinstall required.

Prepare for a full reinstall if it becomes needed.
 
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Solution
cherry blossoms

cherry blossoms

Reputable
Apr 13, 2016
890
57
5,490
If you have IDENTICAL hardware and are swapping out the motherboard fir the same exact model, then you might be able to do that (depending on the BIOS setup). Otherwise you will have to sysprep or reinstall from scratch. Registry and driver cleaning utilities won't get everything, and there will be likely future hardware conflicts and performance degradation even if things seem to work.
 
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A

aalex2

Commendable
Dec 17, 2016
8
0
1,510
Thanks for the quick reply! Ok so just to confirm: running the latest version of windows 10, only having my boot (C) drive plugged in the first time I turn it on, there isn’t any guarantee of a successful boot? And even if it does boot successfully it might be slower? Just want to make sure this also applies to windows 10 since it was underneath the section about a different OS.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Mar 16, 2013
171,442
17,908
184,590


Yes, Win 10, fully updated.
No guarantee whatsoever.
 
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