Upgrading motherboard and cpu. How to wipe hard drives and reinstall windows

[Silverbackk]

Hi, I've got new parts coming in the next couple of days. I'm upgrading motherboard, cpu, ram and cooler. Do I need to wipe my current hard drives when reinstalling windows? or do I just unplug my hard drives and leave the one sdd that has the OS on plugged in when reinstalling? then once the reinstall is done am i fine to plug my hdd's back in? is there a way to keep current settings for example Nvidia control panel settings?

 

Im upgrading to an i7 9700k, Aorus pro z390, corsair lpx 3200mhz ram and a NH-D15 chromax. Might be upgrading to a evga 2080 ftw3 super in a couple of weeks.

 

I am keeping my 1080 for the time being, psu and storage. Not sure what is the best way to go about doing the upgrade on the software side of things as I haven't upgraded mobo and cpu with current hardware and storage. I have built a couple of PC's with all new hardware and swapped cases a couple of times so I think I'm fine with that side of it.  

 

Any advice/help much appreciated. TIA.

 

 

 

my current build is.

 

Storage: 2x1tb hdd's, 1x120gb ssd,1x250gb ssd 

CPU: i5-8400

GPU: Evga gtx 1080 ftw2

Motherboard: Gigabyte z370xp sli 

PSU: corsair hx750i

Ram: 2x8gb corsair vengeance rgb pro 3000mhz 51mm 

Case: corsair 460x

[Tom_nerd]

4 minutes ago, Silverbackk said:

Do I need to wipe my current hard drives when reinstalling windows?

its a flakey experience, sometimes it will work and sometimes it wont. try watching linus' video on why Linus Pirates windows

[aDoomGuy]

Well, while I recommend to do a clean install when upgrading the motherboard must be mentioned that it may not be necessary. Although it is indeed something I recommend to do.

 

Back up pictures/documents/save game/porn etc

Unplug all drives you are not installing Windows to for convenience and to avoid accidents.

Choose Custom install Windows only (advanced) and proceed to delete all the partitions on the drive.

Install that shizzle.

[ZephCloud]

Nah..no need to wipe the hdd...you can just plug everything in and plug in the windows installer usb and boot to it...then select the ssd for windows installation...

[ZephCloud]

And ya backup anything in the system drive..usually is C...windows installation won't touch the other drives...

[Silverbackk]

1 hour ago, Tom_nerd said:

its a flakey experience, sometimes it will work and sometimes it wont. try watching linus' video on why Linus Pirates windows

Thanks ill check that out! maybe ill just wipe them its only games but they are so big nowadays it would take ages to reinstall them.

[Silverbackk]

1 hour ago, aDoomGuy said:

Well, while I recommend to do a clean install when upgrading the motherboard must be mentioned that it may not be necessary. Although it is indeed something I recommend to do.

 

Back up pictures/documents/save game/porn etc

Unplug all drives you are not installing Windows to for convenience and to avoid accidents.

Choose Custom install Windows only (advanced) and proceed to delete all the partitions on the drive.

Install that shizzle.

So would you recommend formatting the hdd's before adding the parts in? haha its only games, would just take ages to reinstall but if thats whats recommended ill just do a clean install.

 

Thanks. 

[Silverbackk]

1 hour ago, ZephCloud said:

And ya backup anything in the system drive..usually is C...windows installation won't touch the other drives...

Thanks.

[aDoomGuy]

2 minutes ago, Silverbackk said:

So would you recommend formatting the hdd's before adding the parts in? haha its only games, would just take ages to reinstall but if thats whats recommended ill just do a clean install.

 

Thanks. 

Well only the OS drive ...but...

 

Games from Epic Games Launcher must be downloaded again regardless.

Origin for me just crashes when I try to use the function locate games so you may have to download these anyway too...

Steam and Blizzard games can be kept so you don't have to download all of this.

[Silverbackk]

2 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

Well only the OS drive ...but...

 

Games from Epic Games Launcher must be downloaded again regardless.

Origin for me just crashes when I try to use the function locate games so you may have to download these anyway too...

Steam and Blizzard games can be kept so you don't have to download all of this.

When reinstalling windows after adding the hardware in, doesn't it automatically format the OS drive? just trying to do anything i need to do before i take my pc apart. 

[aDoomGuy]

5 minutes ago, Silverbackk said:

When reinstalling windows after adding the hardware in, doesn't it automatically format the OS drive? just trying to do anything i need to do before i take my pc apart. 

Before you install Windows 10 you are asked for 1 of two options. Upgrade and the one I mentioned before Custom: install Windows only.

 

The difference between these is that option 1 keeps your files but it also leaves your old programs and Windows installation in .OLD folders. Install only lets you format and start from scratch. I recommend the latter.

 

However - If you want to go complete lazy mode you can just try to boot up on your old installation. It should work. 

[Silverbackk]

2 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

Before you install Windows 10 you are asked for 1 of two options. Upgrade and the one I mentioned before Custom: install Windows only.

 

The difference between these is that option 1 keeps your files but it also leaves your old programs and Windows installation in .OLD folders. Install only lets you format and start from scratch. I recommend the latter.

 

However - If you want to go complete lazy mode you can just try to boot up on your old installation. It should work. 

I think ill just do it properly. Ill remove the hdd's leaving only the OS drive, do a custom install then once im in plug hdd's back in and reinstall epic and origin. thats it? My windows is activated on my MS account.  

 

[aDoomGuy]

8 minutes ago, Silverbackk said:

I think ill just do it properly. Ill remove the hdd's leaving only the OS drive, do a custom install then once im in plug hdd's back in and reinstall epic and origin. thats it? My windows is activated on my MS account.  

 

That's it buddy. You can try to leave your Origin games on there and use that locate game function but it gave me nothing but trouble. When it tried to scan the game folder Origin crashed and it kept on crashing when I started Origin up again. I had to reinstall Origin with Revo to stop it from crashing and then download the games again. Such a pain so I recommend to just download them.

 

Best to do it properly. So its a one time affair. 

[homeap5]

Every day I see at least one time someone asking the same question. And every time I answered "just boot your current installation, wait for drivers to be automatically updated during boot and you'll be fine", but I'm just tired. So this time I answer opposite: "man, do not even think about plug the same drive with the same system and check if it works - it's too complicated to plug two cables, turn on power and check; do not search this forum too, it's waste of your time; instead reinstall Windows twice, just to be sure that is perfectly reinstalled".

 

Good luck.

[Silverbackk]

21 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

That's it buddy. You can try to leave your Origin games on there and use that locate game function but it gave me nothing but trouble. When it tried to scan the game folder Origin crashed and it kept on crashing when I started Origin up again. I had to reinstall Origin with Revo to stop it from crashing and then download the games again. Such a pain so I recommend to just download them.

 

Best to do it properly. So its a one time affair. 

Cheers for your help dude! yeah ill delete and reinstall then. For sure 

[aDoomGuy]

1 hour ago, Silverbackk said:

Cheers for your help dude! yeah ill delete and reinstall then. For sure 

No problem!