Question Upgrading to Am5, what to do in order to make sure new pc boots?

[jonny765]

I am upgrading to Am5, however I'm sure that I will not be able to just plug in my current 4tb ssd with OS installed. This drive has lots of personal data on it and I would prefer not to wipe it. I also have another 1tb ssd with games on it. Given my situation what can I do to prepare for my upgrade in order for it to boot while keeping my data? I will likely have to reinstall windows, but how can I get rid of old windows on my 4tb ssd?

 

[kanewolf]

I am upgrading to Am5, however I'm sure that I will not be able to just plug in my current 4tb ssd with OS installed. This drive has lots of personal data on it and I would prefer not to wipe it. I also have another 1tb ssd with games on it. Given my situation what can I do to prepare for my upgrade in order for it to boot while keeping my data? I will likely have to reinstall windows, but how can I get rid of old windows on my 4tb ssd?

If you don't want to touch any of your existing storage, then buy new storage with the new motherboard. You will be happiest with a clean OS install on your new hardware.

 

[dwd999]

You're contradicting yourself. You're admitting that you will likely have to reinstall windows but want to keep your old data. Any reinstallation of windows will require that you delete your old partitions along with the data they contain. As noted above the best solution would be to get a new drive, freshly install windows and then copy the minimum essential personal data onto it. You should always keep the minimum amount of data on the OS drive to avoid situations like this. And remember, only 1 drive should be connected at windows installation time; others can be reconnected after installation is complete.

 

[USAFRet]

I am upgrading to Am5, however I'm sure that I will not be able to just plug in my current 4tb ssd with OS installed. This drive has lots of personal data on it and I would prefer not to wipe it. I also have another 1tb ssd with games on it. Given my situation what can I do to prepare for my upgrade in order for it to boot while keeping my data? I will likely have to reinstall windows, but how can I get rid of old windows on my 4tb ssd?

1. You NEED a second and/or third copy f your data. You need this even if you weren't doing this major platform change.

2. For your new motherboard, the only guarantee of working is a fresh OS install.
Changing the motherboard, there are 3 possible outcomes:
1. it works just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks to months, leading you do do a full wipe and reinstall anyway.

I've personally seen all 3.
There is no magic bullet to 'just make it work' on new hardware.

 

[geofelt]

AMD has different chipsets from whatever you had before.
It is unlikely that your old os drive could boot so plan on a new clean install.

Buy a new ssd on which you will install windows clean as the ONLY drive present .
Later, you can attach your drives with files on it and they should be accessible.
You should be able to delete the windows files on them which are no longer needed.
If your games are steam games, there is a procedure to not have to reinstall them.
Any apps that put entries in the registry, games or otherwise will need to be reinstalled.

And, in order to avoid hardware issues, pick your ram very carefully.
Ryzen is sensitive to ram for both performance and compatibility.
Buy ONLY a definitively supported single ram kit that shows up on the motherboard or ram vendor's support list for your mobo/cpu combo.

 

[jonny765]

Could I wipe the 1 tb ssd with games on and this would work for the fresh install? Also will I have any problems when I put in my current c drive after the fresh install?

 

[Colif]

. I also have another 1tb ssd with games on it.

Depends on what games are.

you can reuse a steam library, for instance. All you need to do is install steam client on new drive and point the default library location at that folder and steam will find games
It might be same for epic as well.
It doesn't work for Xbox games.

 

[Lafong]

Could I wipe the 1 tb ssd with games on and this would work for the fresh install? Also will I have any problems when I put in my current c drive after the fresh install?

Sure you can wipe it and use it for whatever you want. It's up to you to determine if that is suitable. Should be, as long as it's an SSD, it's large enough, and you are willing to wipe it clean.

If you put Windows on the 1 TB drive and then re-connect your old C drive, the old C drive will appear as D, E, F, whatever. That should not cause any problems.

 

[USAFRet]

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

 

[geofelt]

Could I wipe the 1 tb ssd with games on and this would work for the fresh install? Also will I have any problems when I put in my current c drive after the fresh install?

When you do a clean install with ONLY the old 1tb ssd present, you will be given the option to use it.
But, when you do, select the options to delete all the existing partitions first.
When the install is done, there are no dependencies on any other drives.
Then, when you reattach the old C drive, make certain that your boot order directs to the newly created C drive.
You can edit the old C drive as you wish. Deleting the old windows folders, for example.

 

[NorbertPlays]

Any reinstallation of windows will require that you delete your old partitions along with the data they contain

Eh? That's not a thing!

It is unlikely that your old os drive could boot so plan on a new clean install.

Also untrue. Windows is a lot better at this than it used to be; watch pretty much any YouTube tech channel, and they'll have an SDD with Windows, Steam, etc., installed on it that they will just put into a new build and it'll work. Heck, the Windows install on my current PC is on a drive that I just removed from my previous PC, and other than having to reactivate it and install some new drivers it was completely painless; the days of it being an almost guaranteed BSOD when trying to re-use a Windows installation on a new PC are long gone!

 

[geofelt]

The key is chipset compatibility that allows the old C drive to boot and get new drivers installed.
Intel to Intel is very good.
Intel to amd or vice versa will fail.
Amd may be better but AM4 to AM5 is likely to use new drivers.
It is worth a try if you can clone your old C drive to a new ssd and use only that new ssd for testing.
Protect yourself first if you value anything on the old system.

 

[NorbertPlays]

Intel to amd or vice versa will fail.

Again, this is fine. My current Windows installation was originally from a machine with an i7-9700K, it's now on an R7 5800X. First boot took a bit longer than normal and I had to reboot once it had finished installing new drivers, Windows needed reactivating, but that was it.

 

[geofelt]

Again, this is fine. My current Windows installation was originally from a machine with an i7-9700K, it's now on an R7 5800X. First boot took a bit longer than normal and I had to reboot once it had finished installing new drivers, Windows needed reactivating, but that was it.

Good to hear. Perhaps windows is indeed getting better at recognizing differences out of the gate.

 

[NorbertPlays]

Perhaps windows is indeed getting better at recognizing differences out of the gate.

Windows 10 introduced some sort of "universal boot" mechanism; I don't know exactly how it works and it's not something that ever seems to have been mentioned in any documentation that I've seen, but it's made the life of Systems Integrators and OEMs a lot easier: rather than having to create different boot images for all the various configurations they sell they can pretty much just make a "one size fits all" image and stick it on whatever configuration they're shipping to a customer.

 

[USAFRet]

Windows 10 is miles better than previous versions.

But anyone that goes into a swap like this with the thought of "Oh, it always works" will eventually be in for a rude surprise..

Windows 10 introduced some sort of "universal boot" mechanism; I don't know exactly how it works and it's not something that ever seems to have been mentioned in any documentation that I've seen, but it's made the life of Systems Integrators and OEMs a lot easier: rather than having to create different boot images for all the various configurations they sell they can pretty much just make a "one size fits all" image and stick it on whatever configuration they're shipping to a customer.

What that refers to is Sysprep.
Generalizing an install.
Not a user swapping an old install to new hardware.