Windows 7 change motherboard without reinstall sysprep

It ran just fine. I ended up doing a clean install last month because I wanted to switch to UEFI -- which required a clean disk. Jun 2, 90 0 Whisper2 said:. RampantAndroid Diamond Member. Jun 27, 6, 3 What is the benefit of UEFI? Mar 7, 1, 0 Mar 6, 2 Just run sysprep just before shutting it down and changing hardware.

Here is a good Sysprep tutorial. Keep us informed. Nov 2, 2, 14 On modern versions of Windows? Storage controller drivers. If you're using a 3rd-party driver specific to your storage controller, and your new PC has a different type of controller, you'll need to tell Windows to use a generic storage driver prior to switching out the storage controller. If going back to your old hardware isn't practical, it's easiest just to re-install. There are ways to add drivers to your Windows install using the DISM utility, but that requires drivers to be distributed as bare drivers that can be directly added to Windows' driver database, whereas the drivers for many consumer devices are only distributed as executable installer.

Feb 25, 16, 1, Is that about right? Should I uninstall the Marvell driver before switching mobos just in case? Jan 16, 3, 9 From Bubaleone. Double-click setdev. You will now be able to see every single device that has ever been installed on your current Windows installation. This view includes all currently installed devices, and all devices no longer installed or connected non-existent.

All the icons for non-existent devices will be "ghosted" semi-translucent, pale gray color. Ignore any prompts to reboot the PC. When you're completely finished uninstalling all currently installed devices, as well as all non-existent devices, shutdown the computer, then remove the hard drive. It's now ready to install onto new hardware. Oct 25, 29, The fastest and most successful process is to get Acronis True Image Premium.

After changing the motherboard boot with DVD and do a Restore with the "to different hardware" option. The restore puts the original Drive on but replaces the specific chipset Boot Drivers with generic drivers. Once the new mob boots it will install the correct chipset drivers and every thing will be the same as before. Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.

You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Change motherboards without reinstalling Windows 7! Thread starter stinger Start date Jan 27, Joined Nov 11, Messages 10, 2. Okay, maybe this has been done to death, the thread type anyhow.

With that said, does anyone know of a way to change the motherboard in a system running Windows 7 without reformatting, and reinstalling Windows 7? The system I am referring to is a system that is getting a motherboard upgrade. Of course it is a different chip set, so naturally Windows will want to install different drivers in order to operate correctly. Back in the day, one could completely delete the "ENUM" entry in the registry of Windows XP, shut down, change the motherboard, boot and away ya go.

I have not found anything solid with Windows 7 however, and wondering if anyone has knowledge of this, or knows where to go to find knowledge on this. Thanks in advance to all TPU members. Joined Apr 12, Messages 29, 5. JrRacinFan Served 5k and counting Joined Mar 17, Messages 19, 3. Don't even need to go through all those steps.

Once you got into safe mode,windows 7 will rebuild it's drivers automatically. Boot normally and then install chipset drivers if not already in. I've read somewhere about a function in Windows 7 relating to hardware lock and being unable to move hardware, but that issue was not present in mine.

Seems that Windows 7 is more compatible after all Never had to change out a mobo before, but with Windows being what it is, the knowledge might come in handy later.

Literally replaced my mobo a week ago and couldn't get it to boot up and ultimately did a fresh install. That ended up being better because the original computer had been re-purposed too many times, but this article would have [potentially] saved me half a day of troubleshooting.

What about changing the hard srive controller driver to the generic version? Most times this will work even on XP and it's much faster. What is the proper way - relative to the software and not to the hardware, unless of course it is relevant for some reason!

Will there be problems that could require an OS reinstall? Will an image of the system taken with the old hardware be useful with the new one? Since the make of the motherboard and the CPU is the same in my case, respectively, Asus and Intel , can I update the drivers before swapping the hardware? I did it. In the process I have lost my floppy drive, since the new MB doesn't provide a suitable connector any longer.

I had never used the old one, still it makes me feel old. The only issue that I have faced was that I tried to set up the hard disks as AHCI without having done the homework that is, without having checked if it was supposed to work. It didn't, so I reverted to IDE and all was fine.

The only clarification to the answers that I received which is worthwhile to add is that it's not easy at all to download the drivers from the web or I didn't find it: there is not a 'single package' but a whole lot of files to be downloaded one by one.

But, luckily, it was not needed : they were provided on a dvd. So at least in my case, it simply worked. I am going to replace the motherboard, cpu and ram of my windows 7 pc at home, this is not a server, of course. Am I expected to incur issues which could require to re-install the OS?

Worse, without the appropriate drivers, Windows may not be able to boot enough to even prompt you to install the new drivers. Just make sure that you have all of the required drivers ready and on hand download them before installing the new hardware. Windows may require you to re-activate. It can be useful in case you want to put the old hardware in.

Since the make of the motherboard and the cpu is the same in my case, respectively, asus and intel. Unless you are replacing the motherboard and CPU with identical model numbers, it will require new drivers and even then, it might still need new drivers due to different revisions, etc.

SysPrep is generally for cloning a system like putting the same exact installation onto dozens of identical systems. For your situation, your best bet is to download the drivers, unpack them, and have them ready in a location that will be available to Windows when it tries to install them.

This means that they cannot be on a drive that requires special drivers for Windows to be able to access them e. Making an image of your drive is very important if it contains anything not backed up. There is always a remote chance Murphy's law that something might happen in the transfer that would cause the drive to become unbootable on both old and new motherboards although I think this is unlikely.

When the HD boots up on the new motherboard, windows 7 will detect and load the new drivers. It can use generic drivers for most devices. Typically the network driver would be one that requires a specific install, and if possible should be pre-loaded. Otherwise you'll have to download it on another machine and transfer it via USB stick.

You should also research and install the AHCI hard drive driver. Lastly, some software might detect the new HW configuration and require you to re-validate it's license. So have those licenses on hand. If this is the only machine you have available, you should download all drivers from the motherboard support site and have them available on a USB stick.