Questions about uppgrading (noob alert)

Coldbrewski · May 4, 2017

Hi all,

I'm upgrading my comp from

fx 8350

gigabyte 78lmt usb3 mobo

to

Ryzen 1600

MSI b350 Tomahawk

I have some questions....

First, I want to keep the hard drive that I already have. I know that I will have to format my HDD and reinstall windows 10. After the format do I need to do a clean install of windows 10 and then do a system image install? (still have the keys) I'm confused and not sure how that works... If I do a system image backup, does it need to be FAT32 format? What are some other things I should know about formatting my HDD? As far as the current mobo's drivers are concerned, once I format the OS will the mobo drivers format as well?

Second, regarding the bios, I think I will need to flash the bios (which also needs to be FAT32 format) and was wondering how this works...

Sorry for the noobiness but I would like to do this myself rather than paying to have it professionally done...

Thanks in advance!

toasty6776 · May 4, 2017

First of all: Welcome to the forum, mate!

I'm not quite sure but I don't think you can install Windows and load the system image in one step. I wouldn't really recommend using a system image when upgrading your platform because the system image will also install old drivers that belong to your old platform which can cause instability. I personally just copy my important data to an external drive, then do a clean Windows install and copy them back over to my drive. Also: Don't use an HDD as your primary storage media. Get yourself an SSD. Even if it's just a 120GB drive you can still install Windows on it and install your games and programs to your HDD if you can't afford a higher capacity SSD. It will still greatly improve boot times and overall system snappiness.

Not familiar with BIOS flashing on MSI boards.

Coldbrewski · May 4, 2017

Thank you for the welcome!

I appreciate the advice on reinstalling windows 10. Thankfully I have an external ready to go so that will help! I am also looking into SSDs and hopefully I will find something quick...

Coldbrewski · May 5, 2017

Ok so I found an ssd that I am going to buy and use it for the OS only (120 gb). After I install and update it, can i reinstall my old hdd as storage even though it isnt formatted?