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Replace motherboard - reinstall Windows?
With all other hardware in my PC still being okay (I stress-tested it all and no errors there), I figured to buy a new motherboard (AsRock FX990 Extreme3) that could hold my Phenom 1090T and still allow to upgrade in the future.
I realize that the old and new motherboard are different like day and night. But I'm wondering if I can just replace the motherboard and book Windows (7 Ultimate x64) and see what happens and keeping the fingers crossed that Windows will replace the hardware drivers all by itself without problems.
Reason I'm asking is that I had to replace a harddive earlier this week as well, and have reinstalled Windows completely again and haven't really added much software (read games 
) and only the nVidia driver package required for the old motherboard. And honestly I don't feel like going through a full install of Windows XP x64 and upgrade to Windows 7 again, followed by SP1 and all updates.
Comments
It should work without reinstalling.
However, there's no guarantee that it'll work, and even if it works Windows is not good at clearing all the drivers, settings, and registry entries made for the old motherboard completely. I'd recommend taking it safe and reinstalling to avoid problems, but it's up to you and it could work without reinstalling.
If you have OEM license, then depending on license terms you might not be allowed to use your copy of Windows with the new motherboard.
This can be done but there are a few things to consider.
'Should work' already tells me enough and I was afraid of that as well. Good thing I haven't installed overly much so far. Problem is that with the install earlier this week the updates AFTER SP1 were 165 or so, taking about 2 hours to download and install. After that I had to install the Android SDK (yes, I'm developing for Android here), and that took even longer
But with the uncertainty of 'should work' I think I'll play on save and indeed will take the time to reinstall Windows again
BTW AFAIK there's no Windows 7 Ultimate OEM license ;-)
From the looks of it #3 won't work. I've upgraded Win XP x64 to Win7 x64 and #3 tells me it's not working on upgraded versions of Windows. I might give #4 a try, but with the 'should work' that Vrika mentioned I'm not sure I'll use it.Since you will be using the system to run game primarily then why not just reinstall Windows 7 again? It will only take less than an hour to do a completely clean system install. Plus, your new mobo comes with driver CD that is ready to rock and roll out of the box.
Here's what I'd do if I were you:
1. Download latest mobo driver from AsRock site and save to USB drive
2. Download latest video card driver and save to USB drive
3. Save all your saved game files and profiles etc on USB drive
4. Save all your pics, music, and other files that are important to you on a USB drive
5. Partition your primary hard drive
6. Install Windows 7
7. Install mobo and video drivers from your USB
8. Install Windows updates
9. Install your favorite games and softwares
10. All this will take one day of work and save you countless game crashes/hang/BSOD in the future.
read my reply above yours. I'm not mainly playing games on the PC but also developing for Android (using Unity). This makes the reinstall a lot longer than the one hour you mention. Not to say, the clean install indeed takes about an hour, but after the SP and remaining updates will take a lot longer
Then all other tools I have to install (Android SDK being the worst in time) will take me quite long to reinstall my system. But I think it's ineed worth it to avoid a lot of problems in the future...
I think there is: http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Ultimate-System-Builder-Version/dp/B004Q0PTD8
Not that it matters anything as long as you don't have.
It is possible to do so but it will also be less stable than with a new install. You use it for work. Your work is important to your income. Take 2 hours now to do it right or live with random application lockups until you get tired of it and then re-install anyway.
Re-installing will result in less long term stress. You won't sit there wondering if not doing so is the cause of any future issues.
Agreed
Re Install is the way to go IMO. Just back up and save whatever files you want to keep. It is somewhat of a pain in the ass and may take a few hours to get every thing you need installed again. But in the long run stability of your PC is more important than a shortcut ( that may / may not even work)
Some may say you need a new windows copy for a new mobo. Not true, worst thing you may have to do is call MS and get it activated. I have done this myself.
Looks like I have to reinstall anyway. I have changed motherboard and plugged in the new RAM and Windows found the new board and then all previously in stalled hardware. So far so good I thought. BUT...
Doing the Windows scoring index I had a BSOD - MEMORY_MANAGEMENT. Downgraded RAM speed from 1600 to 1333. Thing went through the Windows scoring index well (HDD looses 0.2 points?). Next I fire up FireFox, open Facebook and again BSOD - MEMORY_MANAGEMENT.
At this moment I'm testing the RAM with MemTest86+ and up to 27% it's okay *keeps fingers crossed for the remaining test* If the test goes well till the end it's most likely that the Windows install indeed is corrupted. In short, reinstall for me. After that's done I will keep the PC running overnight with Memtest86+ for a thorough test...
Hence the reason for a fresh install from the start. With the time spent on this you could have had windows installed and the PC running. "Shortcuts " like this have a way of taking 4x as long to get the same result. Oh well, live and learn.
This has been my experience with every version of Windows. Replace a big part of the hardware and reinstalling Windows will save you time, not cost you time.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Think I've found out where the BSOD came from. It had nothing to do with the driver recognision Windows did since I had it with the clean install I just did as well. Problem was a lack of drivers that I didn't install. How could I know that the Cataclyst (AMD All in 1) drivers were the motherboard hardware drivers? I only know the Cataclyst from the ATi.AMD GPU drivers
About saving time... Normally I'd agree, but try to install Unity3D (peanuts), Java JDK (peanuts as well) and Android SDK (taking forever) after a clean install. Okay, just press 'GO' after making selections, but I do have to wait before I can work again on the PC... Oh well, Easter weekend now, so I'll have plenty of time ;-)
I always thought Windows wrote something to the BIOS when it was installed in order to maintain that whole 1 Windows OS per machine for OEM versions. It also installs a bunch of system specific drivers during the initial install. You should always do a clean install when replacing the mobo or boot disk.
A quick way to install it is with a custom install image, but its pointless with 1 machine.
Windows 8 can store a license key in the BIOS; however, this is typically only computers built by the big-box-brands. If you are building your own, most aftermarket motherboards don't support it.
That being said, all versions of Windows since Win95 have used some hardware identifiers for activation, if the hardware changes "significantly" it will re-trigger for activation, and replacement of the motherboard by itself is 100% automatic re-trigger for activation.
It's possible to do a motherboard swap without full re-installation. We do it all the time at work, but it isn't clean or pretty. We have a lot of industrial programs that make Windows DRM look downright attractive, and transferring their installation is a nitemare with floppy disk license keys and hardware dongles running on everthing from Windows 7 to PC-DOS 3.3.
Even if your re-installing Java, Unity, and 10 other programs, unless you flat don't have access to the programs to reinstall wany longer it's probably better and easier to do a clean re-install and just redownload and reinstall everything. Whenever we have the option to do a clean reinstall we chose it every time, it has less problems and saves time in the long run.
I think it's complete BS that Mickey$oft requires a new USER license (I did agree to their end USER license agreement) for a new motherboard. I agree with them that the OS should be use on one PC only, but when that one dies, I should be able to install it on new hardware (one more reason I'm not using Windows 8, which links the license to the hardware). Moreover, there was also a recent court judgement in The Netherlands against someone who downloaded from .torrentz sites, where the judge ruled that the IP address that was sued could not be sued because it's not a person. Meaning that (computer) hardware can't own things...
On the reactivation & significant changes in hardware (previous reply). After reinstalling Windows on the new motherboard, the automatic activation refused. I had to call the Mickey$oft computer for manual activation with the 8 code sequence and I was asked by the computer on how many PCs I have my Wind7Ult installed. One of course and it gave me a new activation code...
In your case, when all that changed is the motherboard and memory, sure it makes sense to be able to transfer the license. That's why they gave you the new activation code.
But being able to transfer the license to an entirely new computer whenever the old one dies is a different matter. If the number of Windows PCs in active use is roughly constant, with old computers taken out of service about as fast as new ones are built, what stops people from just transferring the licenses from one to the next indefinitely? If that happens, Microsoft gets no revenue, and that's a real problem. There is the matter of Microsoft eventually ending support for old OSes, but should that really be the only thing that nudges people to upgrade? Do we really want a world where a large fraction of the computers out there are running unsupported OSes and overrun with malware?
I run Windows 8 and was able to reinstall it when I upgraded my Motherboard just fine. Had to do it by phone, but so far no issues, but that's beside the point. When it comes to the Android SDK why not just copy the folder to a USB stick as I don't think it makes any registry modifications or links to anything outside the folder (you probably know more about this than I do since I only really use the SDK for ADB) and that'll save on having to redownload that. As well as any other large installers that you need. It'll at least cut down the downtime of your computer and save you all that download time.
Problem was that I installed the Android SDK on the C-drive instead of the D-drive
I only realized that when I already had formatted the C-drive for a clean install of Windows 
This time I have installed the SDK on the D-drive, just in case I need to reinstall Windows an other time (hopefully not...)
Just so people are clear, you are talking about OEM licensing. If Windows was purchased through retail, or at "full price", then you can transfer the license to as many computers as you like, as you upgrade (and no more than 1 can be activated at a time).
OEM licensing is the only one that's tied to the hardware, and even then it's always tied to the motherboard. If you upgrade nothing but the motherboard, you'd technically have to buy a new copy of Windows. Of course, that's just "on paper" and you very well could convince the support rep to give you an activation code, even on an entirely new computer.
Long story short, OEM licenses are cheaper, but can't be transferred to new hardware. Retail licenses are more expensive, but the license is valid on any hardware you happen to swap out, including a new computer entirely.
You make me like charity
If you install an application on another drive and the boot disk crashes, you typically will still need to reinstall the application because it still creates registry entries unless its designed from the get-go as a self executable. For a self-executable, you should not need to install anything; just run it. It really does not matter what drive you install it on. I am also pretty sure Android SDK can be used as a self-executable. The installation program just makes system links so you can run the program by typing in something like adb. Only exception I have seen to this is steam that redoes the registry entries when its rerun for the first time after a new installation.