Msi B350m gaming pro to Msi B350 Tomahawk Swap out.

[Sarovan]

So my Msi B350m gaming pro mobo has failed on me. So I'm looking to buy a new mobo for my rig. I know that if you swap a mobo with the exact same model, usually everything boots up properly as the drivers on your hdd/ssd match the "new" mobo. However I was wondering. Would installing a Msi B350 tomahawk work the same? Or would I need to reformat my drives.

 

[scout_03]

you might not have to do it did switch similar board the only thing i have to do was to get live update from to find the new board it might also need a few restart on the board to work .

 

[drea.drechsler]

So my Msi B350m gaming pro mobo has failed on me. So I'm looking to buy a new mobo for my rig. I know that if you swap a mobo with the exact same model, usually everything boots up properly as the drivers on your hdd/ssd match the "new" mobo. However I was wondering. Would installing a Msi B350 tomahawk work the same? Or would I need to reformat my drives.

First thing is to realize you're swapping an mATX board to an ATX board so make sure your case will handle it.

I've swapped motherboards 4 times...and processors twice...since Windows10 came into being. Each time went smoothly: I simply installed the system and data drive from the old system.

Well, not entirely smoothly as one time it refused to boot, but each time I did a repair install of the most current version of Windows10:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

Basically, the process is to use media creation tool to download and create a bootable USB stick (it gets the latest version/build, so make sure you've updated to it before you take old system apart)) then run an install from it to do an in-place upgrade. Along with getting latest version of Win10 it will install all the latest Windows10 default drivers needed for chipset, audio, LAN and other motherboard components that have changed. Even a default driver for the video card will be installed if it was changed. Since it's basically like an in-place upgrade, no installed software, settings or user files will be deleted or un-installed.

Of course, you'll need to activate windows again if it sees hardware changes so be sure to have your activation key. If you've an OEM copy you'll need to purchase a new one. After it's up and activated you can go get later drivers from mfr's web site if that's important.