Question New Mother Board, old HHD

Martin2014

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Apr 24, 2014
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10,510
I recently had to replace my mother board, Asrock Z97M Pro4 - whelp I ordered the Asrock Z97 Pro4. same board, just isnt a micro board. "Z" is the chipset right? the only thing that has changed is the board. same cpu....

Question will my old hard drive still work? will windows10 run just as before? or am I going to have to tinker with it.... =-/

Thanks in Advance
Shawn
 

PC Tailor

Illustrious
Ambassador
so worse case scenario, is I might have to buy a key, and I wont lose anything and it will loaded up, look and feel just as before?
You shouldn't need to buy a key, either use the one you had originally, or it could be linked to your Microsoft account in which case it can be automatically activated.

If it's OEM you will likely need to contact Microsoft directly and they should help you activate it if you explain why you had to change.

But worst case you might need to buy a new key.
 

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator
so worse case scenario, is I might have to buy a key, and I wont lose anything and it will loaded up, look and feel just as before?

Worst-case is that you'd have to buy a key and do a full, fresh reinstall of Windows. The hardware is similar so you'll have a high chance of something not obviously wrong happening, but it's no guarantee, which is why full, fresh reinstalls of Windows are the gold standard for major hardware changes.
 
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Martin2014

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Apr 24, 2014
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And I may do a fresh install when I change cpu, but I need it to fire up as before.... I have some files that are very important to me, I want to get and save on a thumb drive.
if not I am going to have to find a way to get them off before I wipe that drive.
 

Martin2014

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Apr 24, 2014
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well everything went together, no post beeps, but it does flash off and then powered back on and boots, but only to go to windows repair mode. then only to come back to say it couldnt be repaired. so I have to figure out why it is flashing / powering down then back up.