Do I need to do a fresh install?

[andrewidk]

I just upgraded my dads computer (new CPU, MOBO, PSU and gpu)
We kept the hard drive and ram from his old pc. I thought I could just switch the hdd to the new psu but now when I boot the pc up it loads 2.2TB Infinity and says no bootable device found. I for some reason can't open the full bios but I can switch to ide and when I do it just says windows might need repairs. When it finishes the repairs, it reboots and go right back to the no bootable devices found. Do I need to do a fresh install of windows 7 because it's new hardware? How do I do a fresh install of windows 7 but keep his files? sorry for the poor grammar I just want to get his pc running. :/

 

[weberdarren97]

Yes, you need to do a fresh install when you change a motherboard.

Okay. Disconnect the drive from the motherboard to alleviate whatever hardware confusion is going on. Enter BIOS setup, load optimized defaults, verify SATA mode is set to AHCI, Save changes. You'll get a No Bootable Devices screen. Press the power button and it'll just power off.

To get the files off the drive, you'll need to connect it as a secondary drive to another computer. Copy the files from the drive to another hard drive and then put his hard drive back in his computer, and reinstall Windows 7 to it.

 

[Blackink]

Do I need to do a fresh install?

I would.....

 

[weberdarren97]

You could hook the drive back up to the old motherboard and it should boot right away without issue. This would make backing up much easier.