Question I'm getting a new mobo, do i need to fresh install the OS or do anything ?

[vortex01]

Going from an EATX z690 to a ATX z790 cause of fitment issues and i am not using the eatx features. I am on W10 do I need to fresh install a new os with new drivers for chipset? I dont know how to remove old motherboard drivers so I can install the new ones. Please help with any advice.

 

[Lutfij]

Yes, you 're advised to reinstall the OS.

 

[35below0]

Do a clean install of windows, afterwards download and install drivers from the motherboard website.
Surest way to avoid trouble with old files/drivers.

 

[vortex01]

Do a clean install of windows, afterwards download and install drivers from the motherboard website.
Surest way to avoid trouble with old files/drivers.

Dang was hoping to avoid this but i will do it since my os is on a boot ssd and my games is on another so i wont have to download too much.

 

[35below0]

Dang was hoping to avoid this but i will do it since my os is on a boot ssd and my games is on another so i wont have to download too much.

Aw come on You even have it on easy mode with separate disks. Think of the poor souls who have to burn everything and start fresh with every install.


You're changing the motherboard, and that's a huge change for the system/OS. It really needs a clean install.

 

[USAFRet]

Dang was hoping to avoid this but i will do it since my os is on a boot ssd and my games is on another so i wont have to download too much.

Have your other drive(s) physically disconnected during the OS install.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[beyondlogic]

Going from an EATX z690 to a ATX z790 cause of fitment issues and i am not using the eatx features. I am on W10 do I need to fresh install a new os with new drivers for chipset? I dont know how to remove old motherboard drivers so I can install the new ones. Please help with any advice.

One thing you can do is make sure windows 10 licence is locked into your email this makes it easier to upgrade as your windows licence will be tied to your email. It should still boot into windows you may get driver conflicts but next step is after motherboard upgrade is to simply go into windows 10 system settings and accept windows 11 upgrade. And choose option of do not keep files.

If tried this method and it works better.

If you have games on your main harddrive or steam on your main drive I recommend shifting the whole install of steam files to a different folder if your unsure how to do this drop a pm

 

[USAFRet]

It should still boot into windows....

Which also means "It may fail completely..."

 

[hotaru.hino]

Dang was hoping to avoid this but i will do it since my os is on a boot ssd and my games is on another so i wont have to download too much.

If you don't want to lose your data that gets stored on the OS, make sure to back up the following folders:

• C:\Users\[username]\Documents
• C:\Users\[username]\Downloads (if you have anything you want to keep)
• C:\Users\[username]\Pictures
• C:\Users\[username]\Videos

Also comb through:

• C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local
• C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming

You don't need to copy everything out of those, but if something looks familiar, you should probably make a copy.

After you reinstall Windows, you can copy the files right back where you found them. But do that first before reinstalling your apps.

 

[USAFRet]

And for the above regarding 'backing up data', do NOT copy that actual Folder/Library. Docs/Pics/Vids....
Copy just the data within.

Why?
Those libraries are tied to the user account. Moving those Libs to a new OS will encounter permissions issues.
The files with those Libs do not have that restriction.

 

[hotaru.hino]

And for the above regarding 'backing up data', do NOT copy that actual Folder/Library. Docs/Pics/Vids....
Copy just the data within.

Why?
Those libraries are tied to the user account. Moving those Libs to a new OS will encounter permissions issues.
The files with those Libs do not have that restriction.

I did a test of copying the folder in the User account directly to another drive, logging in as the other user account and was able to access it. I believe in Windows, permissions for the destination inherits the parent folder's permissions; it does not keep the permissions the source folder has.

 

[USAFRet]

I did a test of copying the folder in the User account directly to another drive, logging in as the other user account and was able to access it. I believe in Windows, permissions for the destination inherits the parent folder's permissions; it does not keep the permissions the source folder has.

Which folder, and what type User account?

The permissions on the Doc/Pic/Vid/Download folders are linked to a user. This is specifically why you can have multiple Users on a single PC, and each cannot see the Libs of the others.

Going to a new OS install, it is also a different NTFS user.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Which folder, and what type User account?

The folders in C:\User\[username]\

And account type doesn't really matter, if the user account doesn't have permissions, Windows will tell you that. It only matters when you want to tell Windows to change the permissions of a folder the user account doesn't own.

The permissions on the Doc/Pic/Vid/Download folders are linked to a user. This is specifically why you can have multiple Users on a single PC, and each cannot see the Libs of the others.

Yes, but that only applies to the stuff in the actual user folder.

You can do this yourself:

• Copy a folder from inside your user folder to somewhere else that everyone generally has permission to access
• Log into another user account
• Go to where you copied the folder

 

[USAFRet]

Copy a folder from inside your user folder to somewhere else that everyone generally has permission to access

Yes.
That was what I meant. Anything inside the User space copied to somewhere else is fine.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Yes.
That was what I meant. Anything inside the User space copied to somewhere else is fine.

You made it sound like copying anything in the User folder would have issues.

 

[USAFRet]

You made it sound like copying anything in the User folder would have issues.

"Copy just the data within."

 

[beyondlogic]

Which also means "It may fail completely..."

It may but from my experience this is rare with windows 10 and 11.

Doesn't work with 7 or 8. Driver keys tied to motherboard

I've done this method over 6 times and it's worked fine. As long as it's been windows 10-11 this doesn't work if for example you go from amd to intel

Example I've done this moving from a b450 AMD board to b550 motherboard as like I said by doing a complete refresh of the os without saving any files didn't cause me any issues.

I still recommending backing up any important data.

 

[USAFRet]

It may but from my experience this is rare with windows 10 and 11.

Doesn't work with 7 or 8. Driver keys tied to motherboard

I've done this method over 6 times and it's worked fine. As long as it's been windows 10-11 this doesn't work if for example you go from amd to intel

Example I've done this moving from a b450 AMD board to b550 motherboard as like I said by doing a complete refresh of the os without saving any files didn't cause me any issues.

I've had it work, I've had it fail.
I've had it work, sort of.

Plan for a full reinstall.
It you don't need it, great.

But if it IS needed, the user is prepared.