New motherboard requires new windows install...

[brian60]

Hello,
Ok so I got a new ASRock 970 Extreme4 motherboard and it blue screened every time the windows start dots that turn into a windows flag thing came up. The MB has its own starting screen when it comes up showing what buttons send you to BIOS and boot screen and what-not...and it loaded its BIOS fine. Just not windows...so I contacted ASRock and they said to reinstall windows 7. The only problem is tbh im kinda scared to do this as I never did before. I also know that windows 7 came on my computer and I do not have a installation disk. So the first question is, how do I reinstall windows without a CD or a product key or anything...and once I have all of this...and I am ready for the reinstall..how do I do it and still keep my data? And the last thing, can someone give me the steps in order so I do not mess up because I am known for making small mistakes and I also hate putting in a motherboard and installing the CPU and heatsink and thermal paste lol..sorry for being complicated but I want to be safe. Thank you, Brian.

 

[o1die]

If your original motherboard is an oem from dell, hp, etc. you're out of luck. You'll need a complete windows installation dvd and keycode, since your original windows is tied to your oem motherboard. You can sometimes find them cheaper on craigslist. Be sure to get an unopened package. Windows 7 is easy to install, but it takes awhile to examine your system before the installation process begins. You may or may not need your motherboard cd with the device drivers, but keep it handy just in case. Heres a video that might help you with your first motherboard change: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4Mx1n7qRTE.

 

[clutchc]

The reason it blue screened is because when windows tried to load, it couldn't find the old stuff it used to know about. Like waking up on another planet and not knowing the language. Yes, new board means new operating system install. And like O1die stated, you need a new copy of Windows now.
You should have copied all your necessary data from the old drive before you changed the board. If you haven't trashed the old board, put it back in and see if the HDD will boot back up like before. If so, copy the data you need from the HDD before you make the change over.

 

[brian60]

The old board is in the system atm when I realized what was wrong I put it back in..but im not sure how to copy the old files...and by that do you mean I can copy the entire windows 7 or copy the programs I want to keep for when I get the new windows? Also thanks for the quick replies guys..really helpful thus far.

 

[clutchc]

We mean copy what data is important to you in the way of personal files, passwords, pictures, videos, etc. to an external hard disc or CDs or DVDs. The programs you had on the old system will have to be re-installed anew after a fresh install of Windows on the HDD. You can't make a system image (backup) of the old drive and restore it to the HDD when it's connected back to the new board for the reason mentioned above.

 

[brian60]

I do not have another hard drive, but I do not want to loose all of my documents and files...what are my options if I do not want to loose everything? I will only keep the important things and the others that I can live without can go. As far as flash drives go I have a 4gb one...so I cant really move many things on it.

 

[Raiddinn]

Buy a bunch of writable DVDs for like 25 cents each and copy your data onto those. Any sort of file you made yourself will need to go on there.

If you save everything in My Documents, you would need to put all that stuff on CD for instance.

Most people save things in every which place, so it may be hard to ensure you have copied everything.

In my experience, data is almost always lost when windows is reinstalled on a computer. Someone always forgets something. It may not be much, but often people cry when they realize what they forgot to copy.

I have seen professional people nearly brought to tears when they realize they didn't backup some project they were working on for 6 months and they had a catastrophic hard drive failure leaving all the data unrecoverable.

When in doubt, back up early and often. It is worth $100 to get a second hard drive and to have a weekly backup scheduled that overwrites the data on the external drive with the data that changed that week.

Even if you are just an average Jane Doe your pictures and videos saved on your hard drive of your kids first birthday party, and your trip to Cancun, and your child's first christmas, and all that stuff are probably worth more to you than $100 is.

What I would suggest if you want to be sure not to lose anything is to go right now and buy a new hard drive and completely disconnect the old one and take it out of the computer and set it off to the side on something wood like a dresser.

That way when you do finally get around to installing windows on the new drive you won't do something accidental like fdisking the old drive and installing windows on it (I have seen it many times).

Then, when you have the new drive with windows installed on it you can attach the old drive temporarily as a second drive and copy all the data you want to the new one.

After that, you can put it back on the dresser for a while in case you realize you forgot to copy something you can just shove it back in.

 

[clutchc]

Depending on how much you have to save/backup... you might want to buy a xxGB USB Flash Drive and save your stuff to it. Then you have the added benefit of being able to reuse the flash drive for something else later.
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=522&name=USB-Flash-Drives&Order=PRICE

If it wasn't for the flood damage in Thailand (where most of the hard drives are made), and the prices of HDDs being extremely high right now, you could buy a small HDD and do the same thing a bit cheaper.