Jump to content

Do I Need to Format my PC After Swapping my Motherboard?

Ryou-kun
By Ryou-kun
in Troubleshooting
 Share
Go to solution Solved by Shadestones,
5 minutes ago, Ryou-kun said:

Hmm, do I need to mess with my two hard drive if I planned to format it?

Right now, I have a WD 1TB m.2 SSD, WD 1TB HDD and WD 2TB HDD. 

My 1TB m.2 SSD contain OS, Programs & Softwares and some games that I play a lot like Rainbow Six Siege, PUBG, CS:GO, etc. My WD 1TB HDD contain junks like Chrome Download Folders, videos from Shadowplay and editing videos using Hitfilms. My WD 2TB HDD contain mostly games.

If you do decide to reinstall Windows, the only affected hard drive would be the one that contains the OS. Now that you've mentioned how much is on the boot drive, you'd have to work really hard to get any lost programs back onto it.

I think your best option is to wait and see if anything goes wrong after swapping the motherboard out, and if you're fine, then don't bother resetting. You can always check in Device Manager for problems related to devices/drivers.

Posted

Just a quick question. Since I swap my motherboard from ASUS Prime B350, I couldn't fix it no matter how much I tried. Decide to get a new mobo MSI X370 SLI Plus and curious if I need to format my PC after swapping my motherboard. Of course, I do planned to install all of the drivers for my motherboard.

 

Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

You don't have to.

Cor Caeruleus Reborn v6

Spoiler

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K

CPU Cooler: be quiet! - PURE ROCK 
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver - 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste 
Motherboard: ASRock Z370 Extreme4
Memory: G.Skill TridentZ RGB 2x8GB 3200/14
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive 
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital - BLACK SERIES 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA - 970 SSC ACX (1080 is in RMA)
Case: Fractal Design - Define R5 w/Window (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA P2 750W with CableMod blue/black Pro Series
Optical Drive: LG - WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer 
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit and Linux Mint Serena
Keyboard: Logitech - G910 Orion Spectrum RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech - G502 Wired Optical Mouse
Headphones: Logitech - G430 7.1 Channel  Headset
Speakers: Logitech - Z506 155W 5.1ch Speakers

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
2 minutes ago, Shadestones said:

It would probably be in your best interest to do so.

Will there be any conflicts if I didn't do it? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

you really don't have to. you'll just have to reactivate windows. if you had a "free upgrade" pack to windows 10 you'll have to get a new key.

 

just make sure you'll uninstall all drivers (for the mobo stuff) first to make sure you don't create problems.

Primary System

  • CPU
    Ryzen R6 5700X
  • Motherboard
    MSI B350M mortar arctic
  • RAM
    32GB Corsair RGB 3600MT/s CAS18
  • GPU
    Zotac RTX 3070 OC
  • Case
    kind of a mess
  • Storage
    WD black NVMe SSD 500GB & 1TB samsung Sata ssd & x 1TB WD blue & x 3TB Seagate
  • PSU
    corsair RM750X white
  • Display(s)
    1440p 21:9 100Hz
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Motherboard swaps don't usually require reformatting. Windows is pretty good with installing new drivers. In fact, the last time I reinstalled Windows 10 with a blank slate, all I had to install was the graphics driver, as Windows took care of the rest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
10 minutes ago, Ryou-kun said:

Will there be any conflicts if I didn't do it? 

The drivers for devices on your new motherboard will not be the same as your previous motherboard (For example: Ethernet, Audio Codec), so there's a chance that something might not work right away and will require user intervention. Windows will need to be reactivated with either the product key or your Microsoft Account.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
7 minutes ago, Shadestones said:

The drivers for devices on your new motherboard will not be the same as your previous motherboard (For example: Ethernet, Audio Codec), so there's a chance that something might not work right away and will require user intervention. Windows will need to be reactivated with either the product key or your Microsoft Account.

Hmm, do I need to mess with my two hard drive if I planned to format it?

Right now, I have a WD 1TB m.2 SSD, WD 1TB HDD and WD 2TB HDD. 

My 1TB m.2 SSD contain OS, Programs & Softwares and some games that I play a lot like Rainbow Six Siege, PUBG, CS:GO, etc. My WD 1TB HDD contain junks like Chrome Download Folders, videos from Shadowplay and editing videos using Hitfilms. My WD 2TB HDD contain mostly games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

new board mean a registry update to refresh power config settings set at install of windows 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Solution
5 minutes ago, Ryou-kun said:

Hmm, do I need to mess with my two hard drive if I planned to format it?

Right now, I have a WD 1TB m.2 SSD, WD 1TB HDD and WD 2TB HDD. 

My 1TB m.2 SSD contain OS, Programs & Softwares and some games that I play a lot like Rainbow Six Siege, PUBG, CS:GO, etc. My WD 1TB HDD contain junks like Chrome Download Folders, videos from Shadowplay and editing videos using Hitfilms. My WD 2TB HDD contain mostly games.

If you do decide to reinstall Windows, the only affected hard drive would be the one that contains the OS. Now that you've mentioned how much is on the boot drive, you'd have to work really hard to get any lost programs back onto it.

I think your best option is to wait and see if anything goes wrong after swapping the motherboard out, and if you're fine, then don't bother resetting. You can always check in Device Manager for problems related to devices/drivers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
5 minutes ago, Ryou-kun said:

Hmm, do I need to mess with my two hard drive if I planned to format it?

Right now, I have a WD 1TB m.2 SSD, WD 1TB HDD and WD 2TB HDD. 

My 1TB m.2 SSD contain OS, Programs & Softwares and some games that I play a lot like Rainbow Six Siege, PUBG, CS:GO, etc. My WD 1TB HDD contain junks like Chrome Download Folders, videos from Shadowplay and editing videos using Hitfilms. My WD 2TB HDD contain mostly games.

Only the drive with Windows installation, unless you moved the "user" folder to another drive.

 

Since your SSD has games, it's better to move their folders into your game HDD for the moment. If Steam doesn't recognize them though, you will have to download them again.

CPU: i7-2600K 4751MHz 1.44V (software) --> 1.47V at the back of the socket Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Extreme4 (BCLK: 103.3MHz) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 RAM: Adata XPG 2x8GB DDR3 (XMP: 2133MHz 10-11-11-30 CR2, custom: 2203MHz 10-11-10-26 CR1 tRFC:230 tREFI:14000) GPU: Asus GTX 1070 Dual (Super Jetstream vbios, +70(2025-2088MHz)/+400(8.8Gbps)) SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB (main boot drive), Transcend SSD370 128GB PSU: Seasonic X-660 80+ Gold Case: Antec P110 Silent, 5 intakes 1 exhaust Monitor: AOC G2460PF 1080p 144Hz (150Hz max w/ DP, 121Hz max w/ HDMI) TN panel Keyboard: Logitech G610 Orion (Cherry MX Blue) with SteelSeries Apex M260 keycaps Mouse: BenQ Zowie FK1

 

Model: HP Omen 17 17-an110ca CPU: i7-8750H (0.125V core & cache, 50mV SA undervolt) GPU: GTX 1060 6GB Mobile (+80/+450, 1650MHz~1750MHz 0.78V~0.85V) RAM: 8+8GB DDR4-2400 18-17-17-39 2T Storage: HP EX920 1TB PCIe x4 M.2 SSD + Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD, 128GB Toshiba PCIe x2 M.2 SSD (KBG30ZMV128G) gone cooking externally, 1TB Seagate 7200RPM 2.5" HDD (ST1000LM049-2GH172) left outside Monitor: 1080p 126Hz IPS G-sync

 

Desktop benching:

Cinebench R15 Single thread:168 Multi-thread: 833 

SuperPi (v1.5 from Techpowerup, PI value output) 16K: 0.100s 1M: 8.255s 32M: 7m 45.93s

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
19 minutes ago, Shadestones said:

If you do decide to reinstall Windows, the only affected hard drive would be the one that contains the OS. Now that you've mentioned how much is on the boot drive, you'd have to work really hard to get any lost programs back onto it.

I think your best option is to wait and see if anything goes wrong after swapping the motherboard out, and if you're fine, then don't bother resetting. You can always check in Device Manager for problems related to devices/drivers.

Very well, I will wait and see if there is anything goes wrong. If so, then I will format it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing Troubleshooting

×