Will I have to reinstall Windows when changing MOBO?

[DarkFlare69]

I will be upgrading my computer in 2-3 months. Pretty much everything important in it.

Currently:
AMD Athlon 5350
ASUS AM1I-A
Onboard Video

It's going to be:
AMD FX-6300
MSI 760GMA-P34(FX) Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard
MSI Radeon R9 270x 2GB Gaming Crossfire edition


Will I have to reinstall Windows 7 after this big upgrade? I have a pirated version that has Windows loader by Daz. It won't be a big deal, but I'd like to know ahead of time so I can get my flash drive ready with a Win7 ISO.

 

[osm70]

Install drivers for new devices
Remove drivers for old devices (optional, but recommened)
That should be it.

You don't have to reinstall, unless you replace your HDD.

 

[DarkFlare69]

Install drivers for new devices
Remove drivers for old devices (optional, but recommened)
That should be it.

You don't have to reinstall, unless you replace your HDD.

The Best answer here says yes, you do. Someone's bullshitting http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1739440/reinstall-windows-changing-motherboard.html

 

[Joe88]

I believe you will have to contact ms to have the license transferred to the new hardware

 

[DarkFlare69]

I believe you will have to contact ms to have the license transferred to the new hardware

"License" aka windows loader key. Can I just use windows loader again and I won't have to contact microsoft?

 

[TotalInsanity4]

"License" aka windows loader key. Can I just use windows loader again and I won't have to contact microsoft?

Fairly certain that the license key becomes official when you transfer to Windows 10. I'll have to check, I haven't made any changes to my bootloader recently, but that's what I understand

 

[DarkFlare69]

Fairly certain that the license key becomes official when you transfer to Windows 10. I'll have to check, I haven't made any changes to my bootloader recently, but that's what I understand

I decided I won't be updating to win10

 

[Xenon Hacks]

There so much misinformation here jeez. @DarkFlare69 If your hard drive has windows 7 switching mobos won't be an issue so long as you setup the bios to boot windows 7 also if you upgrade to windows 10 your windows 7 key will still be valid (this implies your windows 7 key is real).

 

[DarkFlare69]

There so much misinformation here jeez. @DarkFlare69 If your hard drive has windows 7 switching mobos won't be an issue so long as you setup the bios to boot windows 7 also if you upgrade to windows 10 your windows 7 key will still be valid (this implies your windows 7 key is real).

So how exactly do I do this? Spam the F keys when booting up and set it to boot from hard drive?

 

[Xenon Hacks]

So how exactly do I do this? Spam the F keys when booting up and set it to boot from hard drive?

Change the boot order in your BIOS every BIOS is different

 

[DarkFlare69]

Change the boot order in your BIOS every BIOS is different

I know how to do that. So then everything will be good and it'll work?

 

[FAST6191]

Historically motherboard upgrades would see you reinstall, a combination of windows activation and drivers, especially you went from say AGP graphics to PCIe graphics or different CPU families, would see to that.

Today this can be worked around more easily but I find in most cases reinstalling is probably still the better path unless you are moving between very similar motherboards or replacing like with like because one died.
Get a copy of mozbackup or some chrome backup tool or otherwise figure out how to backup your browser an email clients, also wander over to https://ninite.com/ and that sorts most programs and the browser.
If you activated by less than legit means then you probably can again.

To that end try it if you want but prep ahead of time. That said if you plan to fix computers I would suggest having a collection of at least DVDs with all the versions of windows 7 on them. Large USB drives are not expensive these days though.

 

[DarkFlare69]

Historically motherboard upgrades would see you reinstall, a combination of windows activation and drivers, especially you went from say AGP graphics to PCIe graphics or different CPU families, would see to that.

Today this can be worked around more easily but I find in most cases reinstalling is probably still the better path unless you are moving between very similar motherboards or replacing like with like because one died.
Get a copy of mozbackup or some chrome backup tool or otherwise figure out how to backup your browser an email clients, also wander over to https://ninite.com/ and that sorts most programs and the browser.
If you activated by less than legit means then you probably can again.

To that end try it if you want but prep ahead of time. That said if you plan to fix computers I would suggest having a collection of at least DVDs with all the versions of windows 7 on them. Large USB drives are not expensive these days though.

why do i need to backup my browser

 

[The Real Jdbye]

why do i need to backup my browser

Only if you're reinstalling Windows.

 

[DarkFlare69]

Only if you're reinstalling Windows.

Yeah, but why my browser? There's nothing on it.

 

[DaftMink]

You'll need to reinstall windows if your cpu socket and chipset are different.
I'd recommend reinstalling windows no matter what though as it clears out any viruses and useless files you may have.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Yeah, but why my browser? There's nothing on it.

It's easier than reinstalling all your addons and re-logging in everywhere.
If you don't have anything saved in the browser then it doesn't matter

 

[DarkFlare69]

It's easier than reinstalling all your addons and re-logging in everywhere.
If you don't have anything saved in the browser then it doesn't matter

yeah, i dont have anything useful on there

 

[The Real Jdbye]

yeah, i dont have anything useful on there

I think you can upgrade without reinstalling Windows. But you may BSOD because the HDD is not in the same SATA slot due to replacing the mobo (and it may BSOD anyway even if it is in the same SATA slot because the SATA controller is different), however there is certainly a way to fix it with some registry edits.
Make sure you have a Windows 7 disc before you do the upgrade. If you get BSODs afterwards then you can use the recovery tools on the disc to fix the issue, it's probably easier to just reinstall Windows though.

I had a problem once because my Windows drive was for some reason mapped as D:\ and when I changed the mapping to C:\ it would just BSOD on me. I had to use some registry edits to tell Windows to expect the system drive being mapped to C: instead of D: but it was kind of a pain in the ass to fix.

Also if you have the SATA controller set to AHCI/RAID mode, then you will have issues because the drivers for it aren't built in on Windows 7.

 

[DarkFlare69]

I think you can upgrade without reinstalling Windows. But you may BSOD because the HDD is not in the same SATA slot due to replacing the mobo (and it may BSOD anyway even if it is in the same SATA slot because the SATA controller is different), however there is certainly a way to fix it with some registry edits.
Make sure you have a Windows 7 disc before you do the upgrade. If you get BSODs afterwards then you can use the recovery tools on the disc to fix the issue, it's probably easier to just reinstall Windows though.

I had a problem once because my Windows drive was for some reason mapped as D:\ and when I changed the mapping to C:\ it would just BSOD on me. I had to use some registry edits to tell Windows to expect the system drive being mapped to C: instead of D: but it was kind of a pain in the ass to fix.

Also if you have the SATA controller set to AHCI/RAID mode, then you will have issues because the drivers for it aren't built in on Windows 7.

I don't have a Win7 disc. Only a Bootable flashdrive with it