Installing things in a new PC, how hard can it be?

Strelok16

Strelok16

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So I have a new PC that I just bult (well, just got working, but that's another story...) And I'm about to start installing all my stuff on it, when a tempting but possibly hugely idiotic thought occurred to me. What if I just took the hard drives out of my old PC, with OS and everything still on them, and stuck them in the new one? They are both AMD systems. All my stuff is backed up so if I end up having to reinstall all of it, it won't matter much since that's what I was planning on doing anyway.

The old PC specs are: ASUS A8N-SLI, AMD FX-64, GTS 8800

New: ASUS Crosshair V Formula, AMD FX-8150, ATI 6950

Would it have any chance of actually booting up and working at all? (I know i'd have a bunch of driver installing to do) Or am I just a moron for even entertaining these thoughts? Like I said, losing data off the drives isn't a problem.
 
While it's possible, personally I'd want the freshest start possible o the new system. The machine will likely feel faster plus it'll be way easier to trace any issues that crop up.

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agreed. you could try, but i wouldn't recommend it.
i'd say avoid the hassle of trying to make it work and just get a fresh system on it, it'll just "feel" better :p
 
The only way this would work is if the motherboards were identical. The windows license looks at the motherboard to determine if it is still the same system. If it is different it won't boot.

You can change everything except the motherboard (ram, cpu, psu, gpu, hdds, optical drives, etc.) and the install will continue to work. However, once you change the motherboard, microsoft considers it a new system and they want you to buy a new license.
 
Paco said:
The only way this would work is if the motherboards were identical. The windows license looks at the motherboard to determine if it is still the same system. If it is different it won't boot.

You can change everything except the motherboard (ram, cpu, psu, gpu, hdds, optical drives, etc.) and the install will continue to work. However, once you change the motherboard, microsoft considers it a new system and they want you to buy a new license.
Click to expand...

I forgot about that...
 
Done that have gone Intel to AMD.

Last year went AMD to Intel on XP, surprised how easy it was, probably a good idea to delete old drivers you don't need before installing new ones.
 
Last edited:
Paco said:
The only way this would work is if the motherboards were identical. The windows license looks at the motherboard to determine if it is still the same system. If it is different it won't boot.

You can change everything except the motherboard (ram, cpu, psu, gpu, hdds, optical drives, etc.) and the install will continue to work. However, once you change the motherboard, microsoft considers it a new system and they want you to buy a new license.
Click to expand...

Not true, I helped a friend boot up his old laptop drive to get some data off it. On a desktop. It was horrendously slow, and complained about a lot of hardware, but it booted. I've also changed the motherboard of my own PC.
 
On the last shutdown of Windows on the old system delete the CPUs under device manager. It may not be needed now, but not doing so would make XP unhappy.
 
Meh, I'll probably just quit trying to be lazy and go for a fresh install. That seems like the best option, especially since I'll be using the new machine for gaming, which means I won't want any slowness or instability or any other potential problems. Thanks for all the replies though.
 
Double post for more problems, I did end up installing Windows clean, but I figure I might as well keep using this thread, since the title still applies! Anyway, I got windows installed fine, but now my motherboard chipset drivers won't install. I put the disk in, wait for the autorun menu to appear, click install chipset drivers, a window appears for a few seconds, but then it disappears, and then nothing. I tried going into the disk contents and clicking on the installer manually, but got the same result. I also tried downloading the drivers from the ASUS site and installing them from a USB flash drive, but that didn't work either. Any ideas?
 
Strelok16 said:
I tried going into the disk contents and clicking on the installer manually, but got the same result. I also tried downloading the drivers from the ASUS site and installing them from a USB flash drive, but that didn't work either. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

I get this on my Asus board, never found a way around it unfortunately. The Intel installer just craps out. :(

I won't be able to look today but I'll try again at some time and see if there's a way to get it working.
 
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