Can I switch my hard drive to a new motherboard without formatting it?

[medicmann]

I have a 1tb western digital caviar blue drive with over 600 gigabytes of data on it. I am switching motherboards, so I am unsure if its drivers will interfere so much that it wont boot up. I am getting this motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131836&cm_re=lga_1155_motherboard-_-13-131-836-_-Product).

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

You will most likely need a clean install.

Sometimes they boot , give it a shot.

 

[USAFRet]

If you're talking about a drive with the OS, maybe yes, maybe no.

But with any major hardware or software change, have your personal data backed up and offline elsewhere first.
OS and applications can be easily recreated/reinstalled. Last years tax records and your son's baby pics cannot.

 

[medicmann]

If I have a non-OEM OS does that mean my chances of success will go up exponentially.

 

[USAFRet]

If I have a non-OEM OS does that mean my chances of success will go up exponentially.

No. That only influences the potential licensing/activation issue. The OS is exactly the same.
Boot or no boot is still the same.

 

[medicmann]

Is this due to all the missing driver software already loaded onto the HDD (like from the old pc itself)

 

[USAFRet]

Is this due to all the missing driver software already loaded onto the HDD (like from the old pc itself)

For the most part, yes.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[stormworm]

If you have OS installed on it, you'll need to format it. Just make sure you save data you need.
If you have only data on it, no need to format, just plug it when you install new OS.