[SOLVED] Building a new PC with existing drives

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Adam Jelinek

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Oct 4, 2019
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Hello so my current system has a ryzen 5 2600 and an rx 580 on a b450 mobo, and I will be building a new ryzen 7 5800x, rtx 3090 on a b550. So my problem is that I am wondering if I could just take my current nvme and hdd, erase all of the GPU drivers, and swap them into my new build. Would any issues arise? Like when I boot to the new PC can't I just remove any other remaining drivers?
 
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Adam Jelinek said:
So I should transfer that data to my hdd and then wipe my ssd to download windows?
Click to expand...

It's very simple... I just built a new PC this weekend.

  1. Copied all data I was saving such as programs/documents/media to a HDD I was moving to new build
  2. Wiped all SSDs
  3. Built PC
  4. Installed windows to SSD from my USB stick ... clicked "I don't have my license right now" during installation (not OEM, my license linked to my microsoft account)
  5. logged into PC, logged into Microsoft account, went to activation and it asked me if I had made a hardware change and I clicked yes
  6. Windows activated
  7. Copied previously saved programs/documents/media data from HDD to SSD and installed
  8. Started enjoying new PC
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Drivers are not the issue. It's the OS and the new hardware.
Three possibilities:
  1. Works with no issues (unlikely)
  2. Works, but continuous nagging issues (possible)
  3. Doesn't work at all (probable)

If you're moving your drives to the new system, a fresh install of the OS (and drivers) is in order,

-Wolf sends
 
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Adam Jelinek said:
@Wolfshadw so all I would need to do is uninstall the OS, and then reinstall with my USB? And use display driver uninstaller to get rid of rx580 drivers?
Click to expand...

When you start the installation process, you'll be asked where you want to install the OS. There should be an "Advanced" option that allows you to format the drive. Doing so removes everything from the drive (including old drivers and any personal documents, so you should have a back up of these BEFORE you start the process). Once the drive is formatted, continue with the clean install. Once that is complete, then you can install the latest drivers for your new card.

-Wolf sends
 
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Adam Jelinek said:
@USAFRet so I did take a look at the link and looked into my settings and it does say I am activated and linked to my Microsoft account. But how would you go about a clean install on the ssd?
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Make your USB to install with.
Have all of your username/passwords, serial numbers documented.
You're starting from a clean slate, and the new OS knows nothing about you.


Have only the one drive connected.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...
forums.tomshardware.com forums.tomshardware.com
 
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I kinda feel unsafe about flashing the bios before installing everything. I swear I've seen a video where you can flash the bios after you have everything installed as well. But maybe I'm wrong. If I was to build my new pc would it even post or would it just be a black screen since a bios update is needed. @Wolfshadw
 
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That's the whole purpose of the BIOS Flashback button. Your PC won't post with the new CPU installed (unless the motherboard comes with the updated BIOS). Without the BIOS Flashback button, you would need a natively compatible CPU installed in order to update the BIOS for the motherboard to be compatible with your new 5th Gen Ryzen processor.
Full disclosure: I've never actually attempted this, myself. This is just what I've looked up online and read in manuals.

-Wolf sends
 
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Wolfshadw said:
That's the whole purpose of the BIOS Flashback button. Your PC won't post with the new CPU installed (unless the motherboard comes with the updated BIOS). Without the BIOS Flashback button, you would need a natively compatible CPU installed in order to update the BIOS for the motherboard to be compatible with your new 5th Gen Ryzen processor.
Full disclosure: I've never actually attempted this, myself. This is just what I've looked up online and read in manuals.

-Wolf sends
Click to expand...
Okay so yes I did watch a video on this and it does make sense. Alright so now I’m still just freaking out about my ssd. So I also watched a video where the guy uninstalled many of the drivers for the existing hardware in the pc, and then ran sysprep to shutdown the pc and uninstall the remaining drivers, then he plugged in the drive and it worked. But I’m still unsure
 
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Adam Jelinek said:
Okay so yes I did watch a video on this and it does make sense. Alright so now I’m still just freaking out about my ssd. So I also watched a video where the guy uninstalled many of the drivers for the existing hardware in the pc, and then ran sysprep to shutdown the pc and uninstall the remaining drivers, then he plugged in the drive and it worked. But I’m still unsure
Click to expand...
Just because it exists on youtube does not mean it is a good idea every time.

That's more work than a simple fresh install.
If you were standing up a few dozen systems, Sysprep can be a good path to follow.

For this one system? Just do the install. Start fresh.
 
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USAFRet said:
Just because it exists on youtube does not mean it is a good idea every time.

That's more work than a simple fresh install.
If you were standing up a few dozen systems, Sysprep can be a good path to follow.

For this one system? Just do the install. Start fresh.
Click to expand...
Well how do I install the new windows without losing all of my data on my ssd? I know how installing windows on a usb works I did it with this pc a few years ago but now it’s more complicated to switch it to a different pc
 
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Adam Jelinek said:
Well how do I install the new windows without losing all of my data on my ssd? I know how installing windows on a usb works I did it with this pc a few years ago but now it’s more complicated to switch it to a different pc
Click to expand...
Your personal data...save that off to elsewhere.
(You'd need to do that anyway)
For any major hardware change, you need to have your personal data offline and protected. Just in case, no matter how you do this.

OS and applications, reinstall.
 
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USAFRet said:
Your personal data...save that off to elsewhere.
(You'd need to do that anyway)
For any major hardware change, you need to have your personal data offline and protected. Just in case, no matter how you do this.

OS and applications, reinstall.
Click to expand...
So I should transfer that data to my hdd and then wipe my ssd to download windows?
 
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