# Upgrading cpu and mother without reinstalling windows 10



## Reigner (May 30, 2018)

I courrently have an fx8370, gigabyte 990fxa ud3 r5 and i want to buy an i7 8700k with the aorus gaming 5... do i need to do something in windows before setting off the pc to replace the parts?

i just don't want to mess something


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## thebluebumblebee (May 30, 2018)

Just. Don't. Do. It.  New install.


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## AltCapwn (May 30, 2018)

You should reinstall. It's not that long if you backup your games and stuff 
Else you'll have to individually uninstall your old drivers and it's a PITA because your mobo/cpu handles lot's ports. You might even have stability issue. I never did and never seen somebody change a mobo or CPU without having to reinstall Windows...


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## Kursah (May 30, 2018)

Link your install to a Microsoft account, then you can track it and verify ownership if you aren't able to re-activate. Now this only works if you're not using an OEM copy of Windows 10, so if it was an off-the-shelf purchase, you should be fine. I've even seen some license upgrades from 7 and 8.1 work, but that's a mixed bag as it's considered an upgrade for a one-time activation iirc.

But link it to your MS account, check the OS repair thread in my sig for more information on that. Then you can leverage MS support better because they can see you've registered it to a user account, the same account contacting them for activation. I really haven't ran into activation issues recently, maybe you'll luck out and be able to use MS's automated system that makes you punch in a bunch of numbers and letters....but not sure that 10 uses that method anymore.

Either rate, that's where I'd start. 

Edit: As-far-as the actual hardware replacement, 10 is pretty resilient, and I used to do this all the time with 8.1 as well...sometimes I would even do it sloppy...without uninstalling existing drivers, and still end up running just fine. It is best to uninstall all device drivers that you can, shut down, and do the swap. A fresh install is always best. Another option is to perform an in-place upgrade. By that, I mean download the Win 10 installer, set it up to run from DVD/USB or mount it (Win Explorer mounts ISO's natively in 10), run the Win 10 Upgrade and that will replace the core image and critical files without removing your data, can help resolve some issues when drivers don't play nice during a hardware swap.


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## FireFox (May 30, 2018)

Reigner said:


> I courrently have an fx8370, gigabyte 990fxa ud3 r5 and i want to buy an i7 8700k with the aorus gaming 5... do i need to do something in windows before setting off the pc to replace the parts?
> 
> i just don't want to mess something



Just for the simple fact that you're going from Gigabyte to Asus i would do a new install


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## er557 (May 30, 2018)

I have to disagree completely.  In one condition- if the user is tech savvy and can achieve this via simply uninstalling video drivers and 3rd party drivers, then setting storage controller to STANDARD MICROSOFT IDE/AHCI CONTROLLER, configure to boot to safe mode, power off, replace all the system, re attach the OS drive, boot to safe mode, windows should detect and install appropriate drivers just fine. any left over devices that are no longer active will simply be dormant or hidden. Once done, re attach all other drives, boot normally and install chipset drivers and video drivers. DONE THIS MANY TIMES. Of course one needs to backup the image to macrium reflect or whatever , or virtualize it's whole os drive, to be able to boot the old system back or extract data if needed. 
Unless the OS is not heavily cluttered or customized, then a clean re-format should be the easier way or for a novice user. Many guides online that specify how to achieve just what the OP wants to do, i.e. not to reinstall.


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## eidairaman1 (May 31, 2018)

@Solaris17 there was a means of resetting windows before anything was installed right?


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## Solaris17 (May 31, 2018)

eidairaman1 said:


> @Solaris17 there was a means of resetting windows before anything was installed right?



yeah he could do a sysprep on the machine swap parts and boot back up. Interestingly though. If he has windows 10, when you swap something like a mobo or a full platform is actually kind of does a sysprep automatically on boot. This is most easily seen if someone is playing with windows2go. it goes thorough all of the "Getting Devices ready" "Now searching for updates" "Getting things together" phase minus the actual account setup and EULA of a fresh install. Basically like a build upgrade.


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## Final_Fighter (May 31, 2018)

in most cases you can do exactly what you are trying to do by taking the os drive and plugging it into the new system and booting in safe mode. once in safe mode open a command prompt as administrator and type  "set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" hit  enter. then type "start devmgmt.msc" hit enter again and device manager should open up. after that click the "view" tab and select "show hidden devices". then you just expand each list and unistall all the drivers that are slightly transparent. once you are all done go ahead and reboot the system and install all the new drivers. in most cases this is enough and does not need anything more done.

edit: just boot the os into safe mode the first time and let it install drivers then reboot and fallow the steps i listed above. back with windows vista and earlier windows versions this would be problematic but sense 7 ive found that swapping boards from different manufacturers and even amd to intel has become mostly doable. ive done it a handfull of times.


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## Flanker (May 31, 2018)

I've tried something like that, by sticking the HDD of my Sandy bridge Dell laptop into the PC I have now. Seems usable but I did a complete reinstall just to be safe.


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## deadend (Jun 3, 2018)

did it with a b250 motherboard upgrading to z270, did not need to reinstall anything, windows was still activated
did it with the z270 into z370 and lost windows activation, however did not have to reinstall any drivers, windows handled everything

i don't recommend doing it by going from amd > intel


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## newtekie1 (Jun 3, 2018)

Windows 10 when it detects a massive hardware change will trigger a hardware re-setup, so you don't have to do a complete re-install.  You'll see it the first time you boot Windows 10 on the new hardware, it will say Setting Up Windows or something like that.  There isn't even a need to uninstall the old hadware's drivers anymore.

Of course, it still bugs me not doing a clean install, so I still do it even though I know I don't have to.


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 4, 2018)

newtekie1 said:


> Windows 10 when it detects a massive hardware change will trigger a hardware re-setup, so you don't have to do a complete re-install.  You'll see it the first time you boot Windows 10 on the new hardware, it will say Setting Up Windows or something like that.  There isn't even a need to uninstall the old hadware's drivers anymore.
> 
> Of course, it still bugs me not doing a clean install, so I still do it even though I know I don't have to.



Better safe than sorry.


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## cadaveca (Jun 4, 2018)

newtekie1 said:


> Windows 10 when it detects a massive hardware change will trigger a hardware re-setup, so you don't have to do a complete re-install.  You'll see it the first time you boot Windows 10 on the new hardware, it will say Setting Up Windows or something like that.  There isn't even a need to uninstall the old hadware's drivers anymore.
> 
> Of course, it still bugs me not doing a clean install, so I still do it even though I know I don't have to.


Yes, exactly. Works fine, and I have swapped from AMD to intel and back and forth and mainstream and HEDT... I have an OS that been on close to 100 boards without any re-install that I use often.

However, there have been a few instances of drive controller settings (AHCI/RAID) causing an issue if the OS has NOT been installed in UEFI mode. UEFI install is quite different than a non-uefi one. There is also the issue of the board's BIOS not being in the right UEFI "mode" causing issues.


If you have installed an ASUS board software, or you have installed any RGB control software, these things cause an issue, and will be reason for a fresh install.


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## Fouquin (Jun 4, 2018)

cadaveca said:


> Yes, exactly. Works fine, and I have swapped from AMD to intel and back and forth and mainstream and HEDT... I have an OS that been on close to 100 boards without any re-install that I use often.



Same here. Been using the same Win10 install on my test bench with everything from the Pentium 4 to the i7-8700K (even mobile parts) and never once had it fail to accommodate the new hardware.


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 4, 2018)

Cool, but there are those who will experience trouble.


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## Vayra86 (Jun 5, 2018)

Don't upgrade your mother, she's probably fine as is 

But yes I would definitely start from scratch. Sure, Windows 10 handles hardware changes better, but we have literally no idea what you've got installed on your system and its dependancies. There is more than just an OS tied into this in hundreds of ways none of us can probably tell. And its not like its hard either to start fresh. Put all your data on a separate drive, start the new rig with an OS drive and it takes all of 30 minutes, and that's being slow.


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## er557 (Jun 5, 2018)

yeah but one needs to reinstall all his applications, games, settings, browser preferences, customized group policies and registry tweaks, that is not an option for me. my system was clean installed in 2008 , vista days, and has countless customizations. All these years I never clean installed again, went through OS upgrades, hardware changes, but of course you need to keep an eye on system files integrity and windows update issues, otherwise no troubles are expected.


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## Mussels (Jun 5, 2018)

Windows 10 will often transfer between systems, but it does bloat and slow down eventually

I've had systems refuse to transfer because the USB drivers broke - this was intel to intel, ivy bridge motherboard upgrade.
I've also had ASUS motherboards install some odd driver/service that had to be disabled or the system would BSOD on every boot (anything -> asus worked, Asus -> anything else did not)

And then of course is the whole legacy boot vs UEFI...

transferring to see if it works? sure, give it a shot. relying on it to work and risking losing everything anyway? hell no, just back shit up in advance and clean install.


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## er557 (Jun 5, 2018)

That's odd, I transferred from asus x58 to msi x99 during a vista to windows 7 in place upgrade and didn't have an issue with asus devices. Also transferred from x99 to c612. I think the non active device drivers simply disable themselves and left as shadows, once you install latest intel inf update the system should be stable, and that includes SLI as well.

About the legacy/uefi, I was on legacy mbr up to creators update, at which point I simply used the built in tool mbr2gpt and it migrated nicely.


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## Mussels (Jun 5, 2018)

for every one i've had issues, 10 have worked

that doesnt help you if you've torn apart the old system or sold it, and need to access those files


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## er557 (Jun 5, 2018)

Yeah I know, but what I did with the old system and files is simply used VMware converter standalone, and virtualized the entire os drive, and now my old vista pc boots up in VMware workstation, with all the files intact and ready. though I used a 700gb vmdk file for the virtual drive


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