Windows and hard drives/MOBO upgrading

[moondawg009]

Hi everyone,

Within the next week or two i plan on upgrading a few of my components mainly my motherboard going from a MSI Z68A to a MSI Z170A M5.

I wanted to know if I change the motherboard and connect it to my hardrive will it boot up with my normal Windows 10? I am perfectly fine with doing a fresh install if need be, I'm just really hoping I don't need to purchase Windows again and I would like to avoid it if at all possible.

I still have the Windows 8 Pro original product key but no disk (I bought it and downloaded it from online) however I do think I have the Windows 8 set up media saved to a USB that i got from the site a while ago but I think it may be a bit outdated.

Also does anyone know how this would affect re upgrading back to Windows 10 Pro?

Not sure if this is the right sub-forum for these questions.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

If you upgrade the motherboard you will have to reinstall Windows - this is unavoidable.

To avoid having to install Windows 8 Pro and going through the whole upgrade process, you can download a Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft and install Windows 10 directly.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10

After Windows 10 is installed, you can use the Windows 8 key to activate.

I had to do this when I upgraded from LGA 1155 to LGA 1150 a few months ago and this is the process I used.

 

[moondawg009]

Thanks for the reply, I'm really glad I can use the copy I have now since I am going to be using the same hard drive.

So once I download the media onto a say, a USB and finish putting together the new PC and go to boot it up, will I need to go into the new BIOS to configure it to startup with the USB or do you think it will just go straight into the installation after I boot it up?

 

[ThatVietGuy]

You'll have to tell the motherboard to boot from the USB - I doubt this will ever change.