Changing motherboard without reinstalling Wndows 7 Pro

[Flogger23m]

Hello,

I am thinking of upgrading my old AMD 965 to a newer Intel i5 3570K or i5 4670K setup. Obviously, this will require a new motherboard and RAM in addition to the CPU. However, I would like to keep my current Windows 7 Pro 64bit install. I have a lot of programs and games with mods set up in particular ways that are hard (if not impossible in some instances) to reconfigure in the same way. And my Windows 7 install is in good shape (69 from power on to Firefox) so I don't feel a need to wipe my HDD.

I am wondering if I can change my motherboard without having to reinstall Windows 7 Pro 64bit and what the process is. First, my current specs:

ASUS M3N78 Pro: M3N78 PRO - http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M3N78_PRO/#overview
Windows 7 Pro 64bit with latest updates
AMD 965
8GB GDDR2
GTX670
WD Black 2TB (boot drive)
Seagate 750GB (backup data drive, unplugged most of the time)
ASUS DVD burner
Antec Earthwatts 650 Green

What I am looking at upgrading to:
MSI Z77MA-G45:
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z77MA-G45.html#/?div=Basic

With an i5 3570K and DDR3 RAM of whatever quality brand is on sale.

Or MSI Z87-G43:
http://us.msi.com/product/mb/Z87-G43.html

With an i5 4670K and DDR3 RAM of whatever quality brand is on sale.


This is a big change, going from AMD to Intel and ASUS to MSI. So can this hardware change be done without reinstalling Windows 7 Pro 64bit? If so, can someone detail the steps must I take?

Note: I do have a data HDD which I use for data backups, so I do have a backup of all my files. I also realize a motherboard switch requires Windows 7 to be reactivated.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Kursah]

All I've ever had to do here is uninstall the MB drivers, have new MB drivers ready. Make sure if you were or were not in ACHI mode you ensure the new MB is setup that way in BIOS or EFI.

Everything should work on the base driver, except for maybe network adapters. If you have drivers ready you should be okay.

You may have to run a scandisk or windows repair if it fails to intialize a boot after the hardware repair. Also if you swap connector numbers on HDD's, you may either need to swap them physically on the MB (i.e. SATA 0 was OS, now you have the OS drive on SATA 1 and DVD on SATA 0) or via Manage Disks in Windows.

Really though should be pretty minimal..uninstall cpu, all MB related drivers and software, shut down. hardware swap...setup new MB bios, boot into windows, install new drivers and go. That's worked for me many times...not very hard. But others have had great issues. I recommend you run MS Easy File Transfer or similar backup methods, or copy your Users folder and other important data off your OS drive or OS partition just in case it gets corrupted during the initialization of new hardware like others have experienced.

Good luck! Should be pretty easy imho...but ymmv! Keep us posted!

 

[digibucc]

there are posts on this all the time, it's one of the most commonly asked questions. If you have a specific error by all means but please read existing threads before making additional ones.
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2985790

best of luck

 

[GreiverBlade]

i went from a 890FX to a X58 without problems other than re activating my Win7Pro64 on the other hand i had to do a new install when i went from a X58 (Asus P6T SE) to a ...X58 (Asus Rampage III Extreme)

also went from a 970 to the 890FX i mentioned above without anything else than re activate win7

 

[Flogger23m]

All I've ever had to do here is uninstall the MB drivers, have new MB drivers ready. Make sure if you were or were not in ACHI mode you ensure the new MB is setup that way in BIOS or EFI.

Everything should work on the base driver, except for maybe network adapters. If you have drivers ready you should be okay.

You may have to run a scandisk or windows repair if it fails to intialize a boot after the hardware repair. Also if you swap connector numbers on HDD's, you may either need to swap them physically on the MB (i.e. SATA 0 was OS, now you have the OS drive on SATA 1 and DVD on SATA 0) or via Manage Disks in Windows.

Really though should be pretty minimal..uninstall cpu, all MB related drivers and software, shut down. hardware swap...setup new MB bios, boot into windows, install new drivers and go. That's worked for me many times...not very hard. But others have had great issues. I recommend you run MS Easy File Transfer or similar backup methods, or copy your Users folder and other important data off your OS drive or OS partition just in case it gets corrupted during the initialization of new hardware like others have experienced.

Good luck! Should be pretty easy imho...but ymmv! Keep us posted!

Thanks for the quick reply. I have a couple of extra questions. I can't seem to find any ASUS drivers in the Uninstall Programs list. Would I have to uninstall the drivers via the Device Manager; and if so which devices in particular?

http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af73/Flogger23m/Untitled_zpsa471db96.jpg

What is EFI?

For Windows 7 Repair do I insert the DVD and boot from the disk?

As for the HDD SATAs, are you suggesting to keeping them in the same position as they are in my current motherboard? So if my boot drive is in position 1 I should ensure it is in position 1 on the new motherboard?

there are posts on this all the time, it's one of the most commonly asked questions. If you have a specific error by all means but please read existing threads before making additional ones.
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2985790

best of luck

Will do, it just that most other posts seem to be smaller/more similar upgrades (ASUS to ASUS, Intel to Intel ect.) where as I am going to Intel and MSI. I am not sure if that complicates things more or adds extra steps.

 

[GreiverBlade]

well as you can see i had no problem from a Asus AMD 890FX to a Asus P6T SE X58, but i had one when i went from a Asus P6T SE X58 to a Asus Rampage III Extreme X58

AMD to Intel no probs, Intel to Intel and same chipset no go weird eh?

from a ASRock 970 Extreme 3 to a X58 no prob either ... eh eh eh ...

as said except do a driver uninstall nothing else is critical

but be allways prepared to fresh reinstall, allways a good idea to have a small HDD/SSD 120/160gb for win and most used soft and some 7200 or even better 10k/SSD for games and 5600 for vids/pics/data less used

 

[Kursah]

Thanks for the quick reply. I have a couple of extra questions. I can't seem to find any ASUS drivers in the Uninstall Programs list. Would I have to uninstall the drivers via the Device Manager; and if so which devices in particular?

Uninstall drivers through device manager yes, and software via Programs and Features.

What is EFI?

Pretty much a BIOS with a GUI that also supports mouse use and advanced features that modern OSes can utilize.

For Windows 7 Repair do I insert the DVD and boot from the disk?

Well Windows will generally give you the option to repair, but yes it may require the install DVD to replace corrupted files. It will tell you.

As for the HDD SATAs, are you suggesting to keeping them in the same position as they are in my current motherboard? So if my boot drive is in position 1 I should ensure it is in position 1 on the new motherboard?

Yes, that will keep the drive letter and physical drive order in check, and make the OS not have to look as hard for drives, drive letter assignments that could cause issues with locating programs, etc.

 

[Tatty_Two]

You should use "control panel" >>> add/remove programmes as shown in attachment, you should then see things like "chipset" drivers, maybe "Ethernet/Lan controllers" etc......

 

[Flogger23m]

Uninstall drivers through device manager yes, and software via Programs and Features.

Thanks, that seems simple enough. I'll double check my manual to see what my HDD is currently in.

Though I can not seem to find anything under the uninstall programs area that would be apart of my motherboard drivers:
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af73/Flogger23m/programlist1_zps2dba4b1f.jpg
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af73/Flogger23m/programlist2_zps9a2cfcd4.jpg
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af73/Flogger23m/programlist3_zps5999e2c0.jpg
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af73/Flogger23m/programlist4_zps41dbb92a.jpg

Does anything there look like it would belong to my motherboard (ASUS M3N78 Pro)?

 

[Kursah]

Looks like you're okay...only did a quick scan. Uninstall the hardware and swap and boot. A few restarts from driver installs (it helps to have them ready, unzipped and quickly accessable), and enjoy. Should be good to go. I also use CCLeaner just in case there's old stuff that might cause issues, had a solid Win7 experience overall until I recently went Win 8. You should be good to go! Keep us posted and good luck! I hope nothing goes awry!

 

[Jetster]

Uninstall all MB software and drivers. You will have to reactivate Windows and if its an OEM you may have to call MS. You will take a performance hit but it shouldn't be much

 

[Flogger23m]

Looks like you're okay...only did a quick scan. Uninstall the hardware and swap and boot. A few restarts from driver installs (it helps to have them ready, unzipped and quickly accessable), and enjoy. Should be good to go. I also use CCLeaner just in case there's old stuff that might cause issues, had a solid Win7 experience overall until I recently went Win 8. You should be good to go! Keep us posted and good luck! I hope nothing goes awry!

I haven't ordered any new parts or uninstalled any software yet, just looking for the motherboard drivers to uninstall and note them when the time comes. But I am not seeing any. As the screen shots show, I am not seeing any specific driver or software for my motherboard to uninstall which I find odd.

Edit: Also what my Device Manager lists:

http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af73/Flogger23m/devicemanager1_zps78aee7c7.jpg
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af73/Flogger23m/devicemanager2_zpsfd1f16f9.jpg

Which of these devices pertain to my motherboard, if any? And if I am to uninstall something through the Control Panel should I uninstall just the driver or also the driver and the device?

Only thing I can think of is the nvidia nForce Networking Controller and possibly the stuff under the Audio tab. Or is doing that unnecessary?

 

[grunt_408]

I went from a P35 chipset windows 7 and uninstalled all drivers and chucked in an x58 setup booted into windows and installed drivers. Been running fine for the last year or so.