Can I upgrade my CPU and mother board without losing everything on my hard drive?

[joseph02132]

Hello,
I currently have an AMD Processor - AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz (Quad Core) W/ R7 Graphics, and AMD Motherboard - ASRock FM2A58M-VG3+ [DVI VGA] {2 DDR3 Slots and I plan to upgrade. Will I need to re-install windows and will i be able to keep eveything on my hard drive?

[OS = Windows 10]

 

[Herc08]

You should be able to keep the files. What kind of Windows key do you have? OEM or Retail?

 

[rgd1101]

always do backup

 

[USAFRet]

With a new motherboard, you may or may not have to reinstall the OS.
There is no 100% either way.

If you do need to reinstall, whatever is on that drive is mostly gone.
Backup anything critical before you start on the hardware change.

What OS is this? Licensing/activation may also come into play.

 

[joseph02132]

You should be able to keep the files. What kind of Windows key do you have? OEM or Retail?

I have an oem version, i bought the computer from Iornsides computers and It came with a Windows full version disc

 

[joseph02132]

With a new motherboard, you may or may not have to reinstall the OS.
There is no 100% either way.

If you do need to reinstall, whatever is on that drive is mostly gone.
Backup anything critical before you start on the hardware change.

What OS is this? Licensing/activation may also come into play.

How would you reccomened backing it up, I have alot of games and programs I dont want to lose

would it be possible to buy a new had drive and have both connected and have it work

 

[USAFRet]

With a new motherboard, you may or may not have to reinstall the OS.
There is no 100% either way.

If you do need to reinstall, whatever is on that drive is mostly gone.
Backup anything critical before you start on the hardware change.

What OS is this? Licensing/activation may also come into play.

How would you reccomened backing it up, I have alot of games and programs I dont want to lose

would it be possible to buy a new had drive and have both connected and have it work

1. You should always have a backup scheme in place anyway.
2. If you need to reinstall the OS, programs will need to be reinstalled.
3. Steam games can be saved.

A clean install, if needed, is just like when your PC was brand new. Nothing in there except the OS.

For any major hardware change, you need a backup of anything critical, just in case things go sideways.
So....Stuff to back up:
1. Username/passwords/serial numbers for any application and online account
2. Drivers for your new hardware
3. Any application install files.
4. Preferably, a full disk image of your C drive. Macrium Reflect, and save that to another drive.
5. Steam games. Find your SteamApps folder, and save that off tot he new drive you will buy.

Yes, purchase another drive. Either internal or external.
Have all of that stuff above saved there, offline and disconnected during this hardware and potential OS change.