Buying a used Motherboard, what happens with WIndows 10?

[HWNoob2013]

Hi guys, i have a possibly stupid question, so stay with me, ill try to make it as clear as possible.

Im in the middle of upgrading my pc. I was about to buy a used Gigabyte z170 motherboard for a nice price. The dude says he has Win 10 going.

Lets say i get that motherboard and just keep all my storage (2 SSD and a HD) that already have Win 10 as well, what will happen? I'll have to reinstall Win 10 again? Will the system start or have any kind of conflict?

 

[USAFRet]

Hi guys, i have a possibly stupid question, so stay with me, ill try to make it as clear as possible.

Im in the middle of upgrading my pc. I was about to buy a used Gigabyte z170 motherboard for a nice price. The dude says he has Win 10 going.

Lets say i get that motherboard and just keep all my storage (2 SSD and a HD) that already have Win 10 as well, what will happen? I'll have to reinstall Win 10 again? Will the system start or have any kind of conflict?

Read and do this before changing any hardware: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3164428/windows-build-1607-activation.html
That takes care of the activation and licensing.


With new hardware (motherboard), you may or may not have to reinstall the OS.
Some people say "No problem...it always works! Just slap the drive in and boot up!"
No, it does not.

Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.
Win 10 is better than Win 8 is better than Win 7.
Later versions of Win 10 are better than earlier.
But no guarantees. It may or may not boot up with the new hardware.

Prepare for this.

 

[Barty1884]

The hardware may be detected as the 'same' and activate, although a clean OSS install is recommended.

I wouldn't bet on being able to activate though, you can now tie a W10 installation to a MS account (rather that the hardware necessarily, as used to be the case). If the seller ties it this way, they can re-activate on new hardware, whicheck *should* deactivate yours (if it even installs to begin with)

It's worth an atempted, but I'd ensure you have a budget for a new license for W10......unless you already have an install, at which point you can move yours over...