What do I need to be careful about, when using the SSD from my previous build (with Windows on it) for a new PC (new Motherboard aswell)?

Fluuwu · May 25

I'll be using the same M.2 drive from my old PC for my new PC. What do I have to be careful about, when booting up my new system from my new motherboard? What are the risks? How can I flawlessly use the same M.2 and keep everything the same (OS, etc.)?

(Might be a hell of a dumb question, but I just wanna make it right)

Electronics Wizardy · May 25

I'd just try moving it and see if it works and if you get issues. Worst case restore backups. Ive moved drives between systems many times and it generally works fine.

Fluuwu · May 25

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I'd just try moving it and see if it works and if you get issues. Worst case restore backups. Ive moved drives between systems many times and it generally works fine.

So there should be no issues by just selecting it as boot drive in BIOS?

jaslion · May 25

14 minutes ago, Fluuwu said:

So there should be no issues by just selecting it as boot drive in BIOS?

Whilst there is a good chance it will boot I ALWAYS recommend doing a fresh install as most of the time sooner rather than later issues will pop up from old drivers, conflicts due to big hardware swap in software, worse performance,... all that stuff.

goatedpenguin · May 25

25 minutes ago, Fluuwu said:

I'll be using the same M.2 drive from my old PC for my new PC. What do I have to be careful about, when booting up my new system from my new motherboard? What are the risks? How can I flawlessly use the same M.2 and keep everything the same (OS, etc.)?

(Might be a hell of a dumb question, but I just wanna make it right)

Drivers. The only real issue with drivers would be your video ones, so I would just use DDU, install the ssd into the new pc and download the new gpu drivers....

GuiltySpark_ · May 25

Was it an older install of Windows 10? It'll likely be using an MBR partition table and that won't boot without CSM being enabled for your modern system to work with a legacy partition table. You should really be reinstalling... a chance to start fresh and wipe that old install away.

If it does boot, remove ALL the old drivers, especially anything motherboard related.

podkall · May 26

Yes, as others mentioned, when you move SSD, every software that doesn't get updated drivers will "assume" it's still running on the old PC. Which can bring instability, variably lower performance, etc.

It can also work just fine if enough boxes are checked, but it's up to you how you run your machine and if you can afford to re-doing everything, because installing windows will wipe everything else on that drive. (you could re-do windows later once you move files you don't want to lose somewhere else, that choice is always present)

jaslion · May 26

10 hours ago, goatedpenguin said:

Drivers. The only real issue with drivers would be your video ones, so I would just use DDU, install the ssd into the new pc and download the new gpu drivers....

There is PLENTY more that can go waaaay wrong