Some thoughts on reinstalling / re-using windows

[homeap5]

It may be useful for someone or not. It's just something that I wrote that may explain few things about OS.

I hope this is understandable - if someone would like to share a linguistic proofreading, I will gladly introduce corrections.

 

1. Why you DON'T must reinstall Windows after hardware changes.

You don't really need to reinstall system after hardware change, even motherboard. I wrote this many times, but maybe a little explanation why it's possible and why it works even with previous OSes including XP (but was more problematic then).

System load basic stuff at the beginning. It loads also drivers for your motherboard, hdd controller etc. It compares your hardware id to stored in registry and if anything changes (including when you add new device) - system installs drivers (or use ghosted ones if they're already installed, but not used).

First you should think is how system can load anything if it needs drivers to load stuff? Interesting, right? Even your sata controller drivers needs to be load from the same device that system wants to control. It's vicious circle, isn't? No, not really - system has basic drivers that works before proper dedicated drivers are loaded and every controller is compatible at very basic level with that. It's not maybe very good explanation, but it how it work. How system can load anything and boot if you have no drivers for anything load and yet these drivers are loaded anyway?

Anyway, years ago, when Microsoft invented plug&play, it works basically the same as today. Except detection order. It has more sense to load, for example, motherboard drivers and better dedicated sata drivers first, then load system using updated and probably faster drivers. But that creates problem, because when different drivers was loaded first, you may get BSOD when you switch motherboard. Not always, but it may happen.

If you have any experience with previous Windows installation and changing motherboard, you may notice that XP, Vista or Win7 load everything, including desktop, THEN run plug&play procedure to detect new hardware. And you can see progress in window on your desktop (if you open it from tray). Your system was already loaded so you can browse internet (for example) or do anything (except lot of things do not work yet, because system still loads drivers and adjusting to new hardware). So, if you're lucky - it just works. If not, you must use tools like Paragon Adaptive Restore to Adjust OS to prevent BSODs.

Win10 has no new revolutionary plug&play system. If you look how it works when you change motherboard, you should figure out what is changed. Now system just check your hardware ID and detects new hardware BEFORE it load current (and that means "previous" if you change motherboard) configuration. That means no matter how SATA controller do you had beforfe, or motherboard, or processor - drivers for that hardware is not loaded UNTIL Windows ends detection and installing new hardware drivers. And that change is in fact revolutionary - now every user can change hardware without fixing anything and/or preparing system for hardware change.

So, long story short - it's all hardware ID, informations stored in registry and plug&play. Nothing really changes for years except detection order and loading drivers order (and of course lot of bugfixes). Microsoft just need loong time to made it better (but who knows, maybe if order of loads was like in win7, new system will load 1 or 2 seconds faster using better drivers from the beginning - lot of people still believes that clean install is the only way).

Someone may explain it better, more technical and more proper.

 

2. So why some people have problems and may experienced BSODs sometimes?

Well, it's still possible. But it's not because drivers itself, but mostly software attached to these drivers. Some drivers uses their own software to control hardware. They may be not written as good as you want to and call hardware driver even if device is not present in your system anymore. And that may be a problem. For example - if you had motherboard with strange SATA controller before with special software to use it or special software to improve your old USB ports (like "Gigabyte Super USB Booster" or something like that - it's of course only example, there is no software with that name), and you change motherboard, this badly written software may not even notice that hardware is not present in your system anymore. Unlike Microsoft, other companies may not even check if you're using some device or not.

But solving that rare situations is really easy - just uninstall any dedicated software that is not needed anymore after hardware change. And use Ghostbuster tool to remove ghosted drivers/devices. Then your new/old system will works the same without potential problems.

Other problems may be with settings - if you change virtual memory allocation to fixed values before, when you had only 2GB of ram, and now you have 32 GB of ram, these settings may be not sufficient. But I assume that if you're person who modify your system a lot, you can remember which settings you improved and can revert any changes.

All these problems are really rare. Now in most cases you'll be fine without any actions. I still work on one computer with XP installed from probably 14 years. Meanwhile I changed drive, motherboard, ram, processor etc. And it's still the same Windows XP (using in fact for 2 or 3 tasks, so not need to be upgraded). Other my systems I work with are not "clean" too - win10 on i7 8th gen upgraded from 3rd gen i3 with drive cloned 3 or 4 times to better and/or bigger ones. Win10 on Ryzen 5 3600 that was i5 4570 before (and Pentium before i5) working without any problem on cloned (just once) drive. My friend still use win7 on Ryzen 5 1600 cloned from old core2quad. And many other computers I upgraded that way - without any problems they work for years.

The only problems you may experience is problem with faulty hardware - that may always happen. But then reinstalling system is pointless anyway (as many people may read on this forum where people upgraded their hardware, have problems, made clean install and still have the same or worse problems).

 

3. What may go wrong?

With changing hardware? Just activation. But that process is good described on Microsoft website. You can even change hardware using OEM version of Windows and if you do it proper - you're activated legal way.

But other things may go wrong and many people jumps into conclusion that it must be because changing hardware without reinstallation. Well, this is really some kind of problem - if you want to made scapegoat for all your future problems, system that was not reinstalled may be good candidate.

Windows is really modern operating system that can handle various of different hardware (unlike, for example, MacOS). For years Windows had various problems and bugs - that is fact - so to this day some people still believe that reintalling system from time to time or after hardware change is really needed. You may read about "many problems" (never specified or proved that not reintalling system is reason for them), you may read that is somehow "recommend" to made clean install every hardware change etc. I say it !^!@% or just myths.

 

4. "I'm still not convicted, what should I do?"

This is most funny part for me. People asks what to do after they change hardware. Is reinstallation needed? Will their system work? It's funny, because unlike many other actions, this one doesn't require anything - knowledge, time, experience, just anything. You must just plug your old drive and boot - that's all! You don't need to spend 2 hours to preparing any change or even ask questions on forum. Booting (just for check) is absolutely the easiest thing you can do - just plug your drive and boot, nothing else! I wonder why people even ask for that on forum - writing question takes longer time than just trying. Especially if someone is prepared to made "clean install" anyway. What worst may happen? System will not work? Well, if you wanted to made clean install anyway, then you literally didn't take any loss.

Sometimes the best method is to try to do something yourself.

 

[SupaKomputa]

They theory are good, but in some practice just booting old windows on a new hardware overhaul may produce some problems.

You don't need to install new windows on every hardware changes, that's absolutely bonkers.

You may want to fresh install on motherboard changes, especially with different platform, like intel to amd, or sandy bridge to skylake.

[Korben]

And do you think anyone who seems not to be able to do a quick Google search instead of  posting that kind of question would read this elaborate text? I don't...

 

PS: I didn't.

[jaslion]

In the end moving over a windows install will always have a much much higher chance of issues because of the simple thing that old config and drivers are present. May not act up immediately but you install one piece of software one day that activates the wrong driver and boom now it starts doing all kinds of weird stuff.

 

That's why if you can a fresh install is always best.

[homeap5]

Thank you for posts above, but I think I already answered to that arguments in my post. That "unspecified problems" ("some" - who knows what), recommending fresh install (no, it's not the best option for everyone, just for those who do very little on their computers and needs one or two programs; for serious users who works on their machines and use lot of software, it's just huge waste of time).

 

Please read carefully - old present drivers are not a problem. I explained why. You have thousand of inactive drivers in your system, even after clean install - and nobody deletes them. It's part of pnp and they are used when needed only.

[Mateyyy]

34 minutes ago, homeap5 said:

You don't really need to reinstall system after hardware change, even motherboard. I wrote this many times, but maybe a little explanation why it's possible and why it works even with previous OSes including XP (but was more problematic then).

34 minutes ago, homeap5 said:

This is most funny part for me. People asks what to do after they change hardware. Is reinstallation needed? Will their system work? It's funny, because unlike many other actions, this one doesn't require anything - knowledge, time, experience, just anything. You must just plug your old drive and boot - that's all! You don't need to spend 2 hours to preparing any change or even ask questions on forum. Booting (just for check) is absolutely the easiest thing you can do - just plug your drive and boot, nothing else! I wonder why people even ask for that on forum - writing question takes longer time than just trying. Especially if someone is prepared to made "clean install" anyway. What worst may happen? System will not work? Well, if you wanted to made clean install anyway, then you literally didn't take any loss.

So.. ultimately you're saying that people should do a clean install anyway? Either that or I'm missing something, since I'll admit that I went through all the text fairly quickly.

 

35 minutes ago, homeap5 said:

2. So why some people have problems and may experienced BSODs sometimes?

Well, it's still possible. But it's not because drivers itself, but mostly software attached to these drivers. Some drivers uses their own software to control hardware.

By the time you remove all the problematic drivers and programs, and then reinstall them, you could've already just done a fresh install of Windows and installed most of the stuff you were using in the first place.

And I personally had issues when switching motherboards that weren't related to some 3rd party software, but to Windows itself. 

[homeap5]

16 minutes ago, Mateyyy said:

So.. ultimately you're saying that people should do a clean install anyway? Either that or I'm missing something, since I'll admit that I went through all the text fairly quickly.

No. I'm saying that if someone asks is reinstall needed and wants to do "clean install" anyway (I know that is strange - many people asks that question, but don't really need an answer, just confirmation, because they already decided to made "clean install"), answer is really easy - plug & try.

16 minutes ago, Mateyyy said:

By the time you remove all the problematic drivers and programs, and then reinstall them, you could've already just done a fresh install of Windows and installed most of the stuff you were using in the first place.

And I personally had issues when switching motherboards that weren't related to some 3rd party software, but to Windows itself. 

In win10 era? If yes, then give me an example - I'm really curious, because Windows only loads drivers for existing hardware based on devices' IDs.

If in pre-win10/8 era, then I described why. And it's still possible to fix.

Removing all problematic drivers is only needed when you have any problematic drivers. And removing them is faster than reinstalling system.

[homeap5]

24 minutes ago, Korben said:

And do you think anyone who seems not to be able to do a quick Google search instead of  posting that kind of question would read this elaborate text? I don't...

 

PS: I didn't.

Fully agree. But still - I wrote it for future use. It's easier that way than answering 100 times per month the same question, because on this forum people don't like to use search. Then, if someone don't want to read answer, it's not really my fault, I wrote detailed info.

 

For those who disagree or have different real experience (not based on other's opinions or habits) - you may of course wrote your own text and describe how it works, why and when drivers are loaded, when system loads drivers, how it check are their valid or not etc. I really want to know why all my computers (and dozens other I helped ugprade) works even if so many people says that they should not. My system is 4 years old now (or more), so I'm curious when I start have that mythical problems or strange bluescreens. Especially that I have hundreds of programs, tools and plugins installed (plus addiional devices, pci-e cards, even additional sata controller and extra usb controller) so my system should be slow and unstable as hell.