Question Prepping for a MB swap just wanna make sure I'm covered.

[instawookie]

As title says, Just moving from a Gigabyte z690 to a Asus z790e gaming wifi 2 . It's been a few years since I've done a MB swap and it seems Windows has gotten better about making it super friendly, so I just wanna make sure I'm not missing anything.

• Currently I've downloaded the most recent bios for the Asus board
• Also downloaded Asus Lan drivers and Armory Crate
• I got my windows product key.
• 
  
• Only thing I'm curious of is if I'll need a windows boot disc too since I already have windows installed on my hard drive.

Thanks in advance.

 

[USAFRet]

Only thing I'm curious of is if I'll need a windows boot disc too since I already have windows installed on my hard drive.

Yes, because you'll very likely need a full OS reinstall.

You'll be starting from a blank slate. You need:
All your username/passwords
Install files for all of your software, or know where to get it.
ALL of your personal files saved elsewhere and offline.

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

How To - Windows 11 clean install tutorial

Windows 11 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows 11, version 23H2 or newer but can be equally applied to earlier versions which may have some basic differences in the screens you see but will largely remain similar in...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[instawookie]

Yes, because you'll very likely need a full OS reinstall.

You'll be starting from a blank slate. You need:
All your username/passwords
Install files for all of your software, or know where to get it.
ALL of your personal files saved elsewhere and offline.

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

How To - Windows 11 clean install tutorial

Windows 11 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows 11, version 23H2 or newer but can be equally applied to earlier versions which may have some basic differences in the screens you see but will largely remain similar in...

forums.tomshardware.com

Do you by chance think it would be better to buy a clean m.2 and just fresh install windows? then let samsung magician handle the rest?

 

[USAFRet]

Do you by chance think it would be better to buy a clean m.2 and just fresh install windows? then let samsung magician handle the rest?

If you're thinking of the clone function in Magician, that has nothing to do with this.

The new motherboard needs a fresh OS install. There is no easy (or hard) transfer of applications/settings/drivers from old to new.

 

[instawookie]

I think I worded it wrong, but more so concerned with current windows on my 980 pro, if I didn't format it, would windows new installation would override any existing windows files, if that makes sense? I got 3 m.2's to work with, so I can easily format a clean one I guess.

My apologies if I'm being blonde lol, also trying to save a little work. I feel like this wasn't that difficult when I went from a z490 to the z690.

 

[USAFRet]

I think I worded it wrong, but more so concerned with current windows on my 980 pro, if I didn't format it, would windows new installation would override any existing windows files, if that makes sense? I got 3 m.2's to work with, so I can easily format a clean one I guess.

My apologies if I'm being blonde lol, also trying to save a little work. I feel like this wasn't that difficult when I went from a z490 to the z690.

Any motherboard swap brings the potential of a full OS wipe and reinstall.

 

[instawookie]

I appreciate the help, I feel like I'll kick myself in the ass for not swapping to the new gen stuff, I really just upgraded my board so I can utilize all the USB ports on my tower 600 case.... Case needs two 19 pin usb 3.2 headers... not a common feature on alot of MB's and I needed an additional usb 2.0 port as well, probably could have got away with a splitter for that though. Ashamed the 265k ultra 7 or w/e has little value over a 14700k for gaming .

 

[CountMike]

It's all about drivers for new M B. It's quite possible W10 or W11 would boot from old disk, but drivers you will have to change/update anyway. Costs nothing to try. Right now, I'm running W11 24H2 that were installed as W10 years ago when they just came out and license hails from W7 all thru several full system changes starting from Ryzen 1600x and x370 chipset Mb now on latest AMD platform. If it boots you can just run "In place upgrade" (look it up) which replaces all system files to latest version. That makes it brand new, just like clean install but you get to keep files, programs and settings. Saves a lot of time and effort reinstalling everything.

 

[instawookie]

It's all about drivers for new M B. It's quite possible W10 or W11 would boot from old disk, but drivers you will have to change/update anyway. Costs nothing to try. Right now, I'm running W11 24H2 that were installed as W10 years ago when they just came out and license hails from W7 all thru several full system changes starting from Ryzen 1600x and x370 chipset Mb now on latest AMD platform. If it boots you can just run "In place upgrade" (look it up) which replaces all system files to latest version. That makes it brand new, just like clean install but you get to keep files, programs and settings. Saves a lot of time and effort reinstalling everything.

Thats what I thought, Last attempt Windows recognized "In place upgrade" and let Gigabyte command center do the drivers etc. and Windows did its own updates and corrections. If I had any flaws, Windows still wanted to use an old 860 evo as the primary drive from my z490 board, even though Windows wasn't located on that device lol.

 

[USAFRet]

Thats what I thought, Last attempt Windows recognized "In place upgrade" and let Gigabyte command center do the drivers etc. and Windows did its own updates and corrections. If I had any flaws, Windows still wanted to use an old 860 evo as the primary drive from my z490 board, even though Windows wasn't located on that device lol.

Changing the board and keeping the same OS gives one of 3 possible outcomes:

1. It works just fine.
2. It fails completely.
3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months.

I've personally had all 3.