Question Will Windows 10 still work after changing MoBo and CPU?

[Poonzberry]

So basically I'm planning on upgrading my Motherboard, processer and RAM in my pc and was wondering if there is anything I should know before doing this regarding the OS or just in general?

 

[USAFRet]

You should plan for a full reinstall of the OS and everything else.

Changing parts like that, there are three possibilities:

1. It boots up just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It boots up, but you're chasing issues for weeks.

I've seen all 3.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

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Secondly. the OS activation. The new motherboard will trigger a reactivation requirement.
For the OS activation, read and do this before you change any parts:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/windows-build-1607-and-activation.2786960/

 

[Quanticriver]

From my experience, the windows eula allows for one migration of windows
Windows considers a different mobo as a different system
you have to get your code before you do the swap
afterwards you can do a new install on the new system

That's how i do it, i have done it several times

Also if you have a win 7 key of an old machin, this works too, as long as you perform a new install

 

[USAFRet]

From my experience, the windows eula allows for one migration of windows
Windows considers a different mobo as a different system
you have to get your code before you do the swap
afterwards you can do a new install on the new system

That's how i do it, i have done it several times

Also if you have a win 7 key of an old machin, this works too, as long as you perform a new install

Windows 10 is different that earlier versions.
Getting the current license key is not needed if this was an Upgrade from a previous Windows version.

 

[Poonzberry]

It all sounds very daunting, however it’s a risk I’m going to have to take as my system is in dire need of upgrading!

Only thing I’m worried about is if I have to reinstall windows, I’m not sure if I will be able to, here’s why.

A couple of days ago I tried to perform a windows “fresh start”. Upon starting this I got an error message saying something about a “boot environment”(I can’t remember exactly what it said). So I ended up moving the OS over to a USB flash drive and rebooting my pc with the intention of reinstalling windows back onto the original drive (Samsung 860 EVO 1tb SSD) but unfortunately I couldn’t do this because apparently the drive had to be set to “gpt” instead of “mbr”. So I tried everything from cleaning the drive, formatting it and of course, using command prompt to convert it. Nothing seemed to work and when trying to convert to gpt I got an error message saying that the drive can not be converted. At this point it would seem that I was locked out of my pc for good, although I suddenly remembered I still had my old SSD from before I upgraded to the current a couple of days ago. I entered the bios, booted the pc with the old SSD and I was actually able to get back to square one seemingly unscathed. I am extremely lucky for this but now I am left wondering if I will encounter the same problem when upgrading the parts listed above. What do you think?

It’s worth knowing aswell that I did all of the right things in the BIOS settings with regards to reinstalling windows from the flash drive such as changing boot priority to UEFI etc..

I was also on the phone to Microsoft for hours and they helped me to change the file on the flash drive to an ISO from a separate pc however, still no joy.

Any help with this situation of mine is greatly appreciated.

 

[USAFRet]

Booting from a properly constructed USB flash drive, and DELETING all existing partitions on the drive during the install....cannot fail to work.
Assuming, of course, no hardware issues.

MBR vs GPT happens naturally with a blank drive.

Read through that How To link I posted above.
It goes through every step.

 

[Poonzberry]

I've had a good think and because of the risks involved I think what I'm going to do is treat it like a new build and buy a new copy of Windows 10. I have two SSD's so I will clone everything onto one of them and format the other one for the Windows set up. once everything is set up I will plug in the old SSD and just drag and drop everything I want to keep.

I'm happy spending an extra £70/£80 if it means no problems.

how does this sound?

 

[USAFRet]

"clone everything onto one of them "

What data will you be cloning?

What is currently on each drive?

 

[USAFRet]

And where did your current Win 10 license come from? There may be no need to purchase another.

 

[Poonzberry]

Currently I have everything on them. They are practically the same because I upgraded to 1tb about a week ago. So basically I have one 1tb SSD and one 500GB SSD. both of which hold the same data. Only the 1tb SSD is plugged in though. I'm using the other as a kind of back up for now.

My current Windows 10 was set up from a CD I bought on amazon about 4 years ago now, I no longer have the CD unfortunately.

 

[USAFRet]

You can create your own Win 10 USB installer for free.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Assuming this is a license key you purchased and installed, that should work for a new install.
Also...
For the OS activation, read and do this before you change any parts:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/windows-build-1607-and-activation.2786960/


For your 'clone' thing...it would be better to just find and copy your personal files to the 500GB.
Also, any application install files for the stuff you use.


Then, you build up the new system, put the 1TB in.
Clean install on that drive.

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...

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Later, reconnect the 500GB drive.