[SOLVED] Do I really need to reinstall windows in my boot drive after installing a new motherbaord?

[dabidoy]

I bought an ASUS TUF X570 Plus Wifi to replace my Gigabyte B350. I have a samsung 970 M.2 NVME as boot and a Seagate 1 Tb 2.5 inch ssd.

after installing my motherboard, my boot drive is not detect so I formatted both drives since I have backups and the 2.5 inch contains mostly games from steam.

is this phenomenon of a drive having to be formatted after a new component installation only presents with mobo installation? if not, what other components will require reinstallion of windows? I can only think of CPU.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Yes, you have to! I'd advise on recreating your bootable USB installer for Windows 10 or 11 using Windows Media Creation Tools. if you perform a CPU, ram, GPU or additional storage(not the OS drive) then you don't need to reinstall the OS. If you were migrating from an HDD to and SSD and your motherboard was the same, you could've gotten away with cloning. you're migrating to a different platform, hence the OS reinstallation.

When on a latter platform, always make sure you've got the latest BIOS onboard.

 

[DRagor]

Generally motherboard only. CPU is just another add-on device like GPU for that.

 

[USAFRet]

With a new motherboard and existing OS, 3 possible outcomes:

1. It works just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months.

I've personally seen all 3.

Now...there are some people who will tell you not to bother...that Windows figures it out and it always works.
Those people are deluded.

Always prepare for a full reinstall.
You can try it, but do NOT be surprised if you see issues.

And generally only the motherboard is the key component. Changing just the CPU on the same board, probably no problem.

 

[Zerk2012]

I do a fresh install always so I know it works.