installed new motherboard and cpu and want to keep old programs and settings

[wderivera]

I have a desktop that I built myself and the motherboard recently died. I bought a new motherboard and figured I might as well get a new cpu and gpu. I have a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium installed on an hdd. It is an OEM version which I have read makes this whole upgrade process a lot harder. Also, I have the Windows install on the same partition as all my program files and data and it sounds like a reinstall would wipe that data as well. But now for my actual question.

I want to be able to keep all the programs and games I have installed without having to reinstall them and lose any settings, saved games, etc. After a lot of Googling and reading through posts on this site and others I seem to be even more confused, but I think I have the following three options.

1. From what I have read, the ideal situation is that I could uninstall all drivers from the old mobo and install the drivers for the new mobo and then everything magically works, but I'm not sure how to go about this.

2. Other places seem to say that there is a way for Windows to somehow repair itself. Apparently by booting in safe mode or running a tool (forgot the name, but it's something like "sysrep") Windows will realize all the new hardware changes and magical poof everything works. I'm not sure I quite understand this process either.

3. Otherwise I think the best thing for me to do install Windows on a new partition. I can get a new copy of Windows if the OEM version can't be installed in this case, but I would rather be able to use it. The problem with this is that all of my programs are installed on the old copy of Windows. I don't know of any way to avoid reinstalling all of these programs and losing all saved data and settings.

If anyone has any knowledge or experience doing any of these things or knows of another option I might have please let me know. If you need any more information about my build or my situation just ask. Thanks!

more info:
old mobo: asrock m3a770de
new mobo: ASUS M5A97 R2.0
note: my old mobo died so I was not able to do any prep like make backups, but everything is still on my harddrive
knowledge if necessary: I know the bash command line pretty well so basic actions in Windows shell shouldn't be too hard and copy pasting commands is easy (yes I Google commands I don't know so please don't try to be funny)

 

[i7Baby]

1. Use the disk that came with the new motherboard.

2. Yes - if its damaged. Safe Mode then 'Computer Repair'

3. If you have 2 copies of Windows you'll get problems eg no post, no boot, bsods.

 

[hang-the-9]

In 90% of the cases you need to install Windows clean and then re-install all your programs.

It's much better to do that anyway to get a cleanly running system.

Since you can't boot the other drive to add any drivers to it for the other motherboard, you can't do that.

Buy a new hard drive, install Windows on it, reinstall your programs.

 

[wderivera]

Alright so it looks like I can't get around a clean install of Windows. Is there a way to run programs that I installed on the older install of Windows with the new install without reinstalling them? Changing the location or contents of files is ok tho. I have quite a few games (mostly steam) and other programs (office, visual studio, etc) so it would take quite a lot of time to install and configure them again not to mention possible loss of data such as game saves. I will be putting the new install on a new hdd so the old one can serve as a 'backup drive' since the mobo dies unexpectedly I did not have a chance to any real preparation.

 

[i7Baby]

When you wipe the old drive to get rid of Windows, it will get rid of everything. Apps on the drive won't work anyway when you put in a new OS drive. The Apps would be on a different drive letter (eg D: instead of C

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/installing-reinstalling-windows#1TC=windows-7 might help explain in more detail.

 

[wderivera]

When you wipe the old drive to get rid of Windows, it will get rid of everything. Apps on the drive won't work anyway when you put in a new OS drive. The Apps would be on a different drive letter (eg D: instead of C

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/installing-reinstalling-windows#1TC=windows-7 might help explain in more detail.

Yes, I am aware of that which is why I haven't wiped the old drive yet. At this point I have installed my copy of Win7 on a new drive and called Microsoft so I could activate with the same product key. I have since done more research on how to save programs after a clean install. It seems like Steam tries to make this easy so I'm in the process of moving Steam and my Steam games to my new drive before I try to save the rest of my programs. I would like to move most of my old programs to my new drive simply because it's bigger and a little faster.

If you have any advice to make this process easier I would love to hear it! Otherwise I think this thread has more or less served it's purpose. Thanks to you and hang-the-9 for helping prod me in the right direction.

 

[hang-the-9]

You can't move most programs to a different drive, they often have registry entries and other files in different areas you need to save. It's so hard to find everything you need to move and register DLL files, edit the new registry, etc.... that it's a lot better to just re-install the programs.

The only program that I worked with recently that works fine when you just copy it's directory to another system is World of Warcraft. I can copy it's folder from Program Files into another system, then run the wow.exe program and it starts up with no issues. Although now it wants to start their Battle.net program, so you need a few extra steps there as well.

 

[wderivera]

When you wipe the old drive to get rid of Windows, it will get rid of everything. Apps on the drive won't work anyway when you put in a new OS drive. The Apps would be on a different drive letter (eg D: instead of C

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/installing-reinstalling-windows#1TC=windows-7 might help explain in more detail.

You can't move most programs to a different drive, they often have registry entries and other files in different areas you need to save. It's so hard to find everything you need to move and register DLL files, edit the new registry, etc.... that it's a lot better to just re-install the programs.

The only program that I worked with recently that works fine when you just copy it's directory to another system is World of Warcraft. I can copy it's folder from Program Files into another system, then run the wow.exe program and it starts up with no issues. Although now it wants to start their Battle.net program, so you need a few extra steps there as well.

Right. The way I did it was to install the programs on the new Windows install and then just copy paste any settings files I could find. For Steam I was able to install steam and then copy paste the steamapps folder and save game files. I could do the same for Uplay, but it was a little trickier. Anyways, everything is now running smoothly. Thanks for your help!

Edit: I picked your answer as best since it answers point 3 the best, but i7Baby's post has some good information as well.