Question on upgrading mobo.

Aaron0535 · August 20, 2014

So I've, finally, decided that I'm going to upgrade my mobo from an ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0 to a GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 and I was wondering if doing so will require me to reformat my SSD and HDD? I'm not the best when it comes to tech, I'd say I know more than the average person but I couldn't yet make a living out of it, and am just worried that upgrading to a better mobo is more than swap out the mobo itself, install drivers, and done.

dragoon20005 · August 21, 2014

generally your existing OS is tied to the current mobo

due to the mismatch of drivers

it may cause BSOD on boot

it is good practice to reformat and reactivate the windows key again with the new mobo

Aaron0535 · August 21, 2014

generally your existing OS is tied to the current mobo

due to the mismatch of drivers

it may cause BSOD on boot

it is good practice to reformat and reactivate the windows key again with the new mobo

Is it possible to upgrade without having to reformat the drives and reactivate the windows key? The key I used is a master key that my mom got from work, I don't for sure know where it is and I REALLY don't want to re-download all of my games onto my HDD.

AyoItzYu · August 21, 2014

What you will want to do is prior to changing the MOBO if it is currently running - go into Device manager and remove all of the drivers for parts that will be changing (ie. MOBO chipset, Lan, etc.) then shut down and swap out the MOBO - then on first reboot start with the windows installation disc in the system and boot from it - Select the Repair installation (not Repair console but system repair) - this will force windows to reinspect the system and install the proper drivers for the various new components and will normally get it working. (After it finishes and boots go into device manager and ensure that nothing was missed or improperly installed (ie. look for yellow ! marks that indicate problems and reinstall any drivers that did not get installed properly.)

Taken from: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/46024-63-changing-motherboard-reinstalling-windows

If anything, you can try it, and if it doesnt work, format your HDD/SSD