New mobo and CPU - will it need a new Windows installation?

[InternetSwag]

Because I have like 4 HDD's of stuff, if there's a way for me to do it without needing a reformat that would be ideal, but if no other way, it will be done I guess.

 

[R4ziel]

What MB and CPU are you swapping from and swapping to?

If you go from Intel to AMD that's almost a guarantee you'd need a windows reload, but if you stay in the same chipset family with your board you might be lucky and it will boot fine

 

[InternetSwag]

What MB and CPU are you swapping from and swapping to?

If you go from Intel to AMD that's almost a guarantee you'd need a windows reload, but if you stay in the same chipset family with your board you might be lucky and it will boot fine

i3 2120 - i5 8600k
gigabyte z68ap-d3 - haven't decided on mobo

Probably gonna get this;
I'm not smart about mobo's though.

https://www.wootware.co.za/asus-pri...z370-coffee-lake-atx-desktop-motherboard.html

 

[R4ziel]

i3 2120 - i5 8600k
gigabyte z68ap-d3 - haven't decided on mobo

Probably gonna get this;
I'm not smart about mobo's though.

https://www.wootware.co.za/asus-pri...z370-coffee-lake-atx-desktop-motherboard.html

Awesome board you linked there!

They way I normally decide whether to reload or not pretty much comes down to: Does it boot or not. The chances of your system booting between those boards are quite high, as it is the same type of chipsets internally to the board.

What OS are you running by the way?

If it doesn't boot and you need to do a re-install, you don't necessarily have to format one of your drives. You take the drive your windows is installed on currently and plug in only that single drive, then start the windows setup and go through the custom install option, choosing the partition your windows is on currently.
This will reload the windows from scratch (which is a pain sometimes) but it will keep all your data intact, so you just have to reload the apps and so forth

 

[furpile]

Chances are slim that everything will work without reinstalling windows.

That said, it will only affect the one hdd that you install windows on, the rest should be unplugged when you do the install. This will also be a good time to format one drive and create a windows partition if it is a big drive. That will make it easier in future if you need to reinstall again.

 

[CptPeters]

Coffeelake requires win10 unfortunately.

 

[Werfetter]

You are going to have to reinstall, but you dont have to format all the harddrives just the windows partition

 

[sajunky]

Chances are slim that everything will work without reinstalling windows.

With Win10 a good chance. Before swapping motherboard uninstall third-party drivers for graphics, sound and other embedded devices, revert to the standard Windows dirvers.
If not booting correctly, set SATA in compatibility mode, then install drivers from CD. Then you can revert BIOS to default.

Windows licence can be a problem, as it is linked to the motherboard.

 

[WAslayer]

Windows licence can be a problem, as it is linked to the motherboard.

a quick chat with windows support and they fix it right up.. had to this recently when I upgraded my hardware..

 

[absynth]

I moved from an i5 3570k to a i5 8600k without reinstallation of windows 10.

Also managed to keep my free legal upgrade copy activation with the new hardware.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

Link above explains how to move your activation across if it was an upgrade License.

Do a backup for safety reasons just for in case.

 

[Ghost729]

Regardless of where you're coming from, I'd recommend a reinstall. It's just better to avoid any issues later with a fresh install. As Sohail said, Coffee Lake needs Windows 10.

Regarding your worry about your 4 HDD's full of stuff: only the system partition needs to be formatted. And if you haven't partitioned your HDD that has Windows installed on it (i.e. your system drive), then you'll only need to format that drive.

My advice is to have a dedicated drive (preferably SDD for speed) for Windows and all your installed apps. You can install apps to other drives, just make sure you manually delete the install directory upon reinstalling Windows. A dedicated drive makes formatting and installing simpler.