Question Installing new motherboard - Do I need to reformat and reinstall Windows?

[portalbreaker]

Hello, so I am gonna install a new motherboard + CPU and ram sticks.
I have checked around the internet and I just can't really get a clear answer if it's necessary to format my SSD or do a clean install of Windows when upgrading to the new parts. Some people claim it's not necessary, while others claim it's A MUST because of the chipset drivers and other drivers won't be the same. Thoughts?

If necessary - I am upgrading from:
ASUS ROG STRIX X470-F 👉 MSI B650 Gaming Plus.
Ryzen 5 2600X 👉 Ryzen 7 7700X.
DDR4 2666mhz 2x8GB 👉 DDR5 6000mhz 2x16GB.

Edit: Spelling

 

[ohio_buckeye]

I would recommend doing so. You might get away with it and it may boot and work. What was surprising is when I went from an Intel box to my current ryzen 5 7600x3d setup it actually came up and booted. But you can have strange leftover issues.

Short answer is it may work, but the safe method is do the reformat due to the issues you mentioned.

 

[KingLoki]

It's recommended to do a clean install when upgrading, especially the mobo. I have had systems like yours where they boot fine and then install the new drivers etc. But I have also had systems with major glitches and no bootup and crashing.
Do a clean install **best advice**
**Don't forget to backup before upgrading, any data you want to keep**

 

[beyondlogic]

Hello, so I am gonna install a new motherboard + CPU and ram sticks.
I have checked around the internet and I just can't really get a clear answer if it's necessary to format my SSD or do a clean install of Windows when upgrading to the new parts. Some people claim it's not necessary, while others claim it's A MUST because of the chipset drivers and other drivers won't be the same. Thoughts?

If necessary - I am upgrading from:
ASUS ROG STRIX X470-F 👉 MSI B650 Gaming Plus.
Ryzen 5 2600X 👉 Ryzen 7 7700X.
DDR4 2666mhz 2x8GB 👉 DDR5 6000mhz 2x16GB.

Edit: Spelling

yes is short answer always do a clean install. back up all save files etc

 

[portalbreaker]

I would recommend doing so. You might get away with it and it may boot and work. What was surprising is when I went from an Intel box to my current ryzen 5 7600x3d setup it actually came up and booted. But you can have strange leftover issues.

Short answer is it may work, but the safe method is do the reformat due to the issues you mentioned.

Thanks again for you help.

Is it nesseccary to reformat my D drive as well? I have tons of games on them, would hate to have to reinstall. Probably a stupid question lol

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Shouldn’t need to do that. What I do is reformat the c drive and then in steam, it won’t realize you have the game installed. So just tell it to install the game, but point it back to the drive/directory your game is in and it should realize it’s there and install pretty quickly as it looks and makes sure all the game files are present.

If you want to be safe, disconnect your secondary drive when you get ready to forget the OS drive.

 

[beyondlogic]

Thanks again for you help.

Is it nesseccary to reformat my D drive as well? I have tons of games on them, would hate to have to reinstall. Probably a stupid question lol

nope only c note if steam is in the c drive you will have to manually get your saves so they arent deleted.

to find your save files video below i would put these on a usb flash drive 32gb or 64gb copy paste into usb.

when you install steam again remove internal folder in user data and paste the old one. this will give all your saves.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYdJNgj2zwY

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks again for you help.

Is it nesseccary to reformat my D drive as well? I have tons of games on them, would hate to have to reinstall. Probably a stupid question lol

You do not have to reformat your D drive. You may have to reinstall programs that are installed on D: drive. Stream games do not have to be redownloaded but they would have to be reloaded.

You SHOULD disconnect all drives except the drive you want to be your C: drive. That way you don't confuse the installer and don't accidentally overwrite something important.

 

[dwd999]

Note that your Windows activation is linked to your old motherboard so you will need to transfer your license to your new motherboard. Refer to Microsoft's website for information on this.