i5-750 to i5-3570k, will I have to reinstall Windows?

[nardz84]

Pretty sure I know the answer to this, because I have never not reinstalled Windows, but I have so much licensed software I'd really rather not this time around. Anyone have experience moving between Intel cpu generations and just moving their OS drive over?

 

[Pneumothorax]

I would... My rule is if I have to change to a different mobo, I'll reinstall.

 

[ShintaiDK]

It shouldnt be needed. Unless you move from IDE mode SATA to AHCI.

But with that said. A reinstall after so long time can produce miracles by itself

 

[Kenmitch]

You could try and see. Windows 7 is pretty good with swaps but won't be perfect. If seems OK you could Google the " show non present devices " trick and clean up device manager.

A full install would be best as you already know.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Pretty sure I know the answer to this, because I have never not reinstalled Windows, but I have so much licensed software I'd really rather not this time around. Anyone have experience moving between Intel cpu generations and just moving their OS drive over?

Just swap it and see what happens

 

[Puppies04]

As long as you aren't on an OEM copy of windows it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[nardz84]

But with that said. A reinstall after so long time can produce miracles by itself

This install is actually only a few months old, when i got my Crucial M4 Overall though guess its worth a shot, I'll be swapping the chip/board/mem out tonight and we'll see what happens. If not then looks like I'll be calling some overseas 800 numbers...

 

[SHAQ]

I have never reinstalled since 2004 over multiple upgrades, except when I went from XP to W7. Even an upgrade to AHCI doesn't need it. You simply need to update the registry to tell Windows to load the AHCI driver.

 

[sm625]

Safe mode uninstall pretty much everything from device manager before you power down your old hardware for the last time. Maybe there is a script out there that blows out your device manager for you.

 

[Ferzerp]

It will work, but you will have to re-activate. Also, don't do this if you use PlayReady for *anything* as it will never properly work again. This means Zune, Media Center, etc. If you utilize any of those things, you're going to lose your DRM keys, and so access to your files as well as breaking PlayReady forever with no way to fix it without an OS reinstall.

 

[fish1050]

I did this exact upgrade today, upgraded my motherboard to Asrock Z77 Pro4 MB and 3570K from i5-750 and ASUS MB with Windows 7. Initially I got an error message saying there was a problem with the installation. I went into the Bios and set and all the SATA settings from AHCI to IDE and I was able to boot into Windows 7 and install the updated drivers. Everything works great now and there is a big performance increase as well. If you are concerned you could run "sysprep /generalize" before the upgrade to remove any equipment specific information from your system. Then do the upgrade so your system will think you are doing a fresh install without having to re-install windows or your programs. I didn't use it on this upgrade but I have used it in the past to do major upgrades and it works great.

I did have to re-activate my Windows 7 but it only took a couple of minutes over the internet. I have not had any issues with any of my programs. I do alot of video rendering and Photoshop along with loading music on my portable player and I haven't had any issues so far.

Fish1050

 

[Pneumothorax]

I did this exact upgrade today, upgraded my motherboard to Asrock Z77 Pro4 MB and 3570K from i5-750 and ASUS MB with Windows 7. Initially I got an error message saying there was a problem with the installation. I went into the Bios and set and all the SATA settings from AHCI to IDE and I was able to boot into Windows 7 and install the updated drivers. Everything works great now and there is a big performance increase as well. If you are concerned you could run "sysprep /generalize" before the upgrade to remove any equipment specific information from your system. Then do the upgrade so your system will think you are doing a fresh install without having to re-install windows or your programs. I didn't use it on this upgrade but I have used it in the past to do major upgrades and it works great.

I did have to re-activate my Windows 7 but it only took a couple of minutes over the internet. I have not had any issues with any of my programs. I do alot of video rendering and Photoshop along with loading music on my portable player and I haven't had any issues so far.

Fish1050

Shaq above mentions doing a registry hack to enable AHCI mode. I would do that as you're loosing performance by continuing to run in IDE. I know a mechanical HD doesn't benefit that much, but a SSD definitely would along with enabling TRIM.

 

[Makaveli]

When changing boards with different chipsets you will most likely have to reinstall.

In the past i've sometimes gotten by with just switching windows to all generic drivers and letting it detect everything.

However for best performance I would just backup and format!

 

[Meghan54]

My current Win 7 install has been through at least three chipsets/cpus....maybe four.

It began life with an i5-750, moved to a 2500k on a Max. IV Gene-Z, upgraded that mb to a 2600k, then upgraded the mb to a Z77 Max. V Gene a couple of weeks ago.

In all that time, never reinstalled the OS. Win 7 just reinitialized the drivers for the specific chipset on restart after upgrades. I did have to run the mb's driver disc to get the LAN, audio, etc. to work, but never failed once. And this also included moving my OS to an Intel SSD during all this, too. So it can be done.

 

[Rvenger]

As long as you aren't on an OEM copy of windows it shouldn't be a problem.

It doesn't even matter if its an OEM copy, they all reactivate over the phone now.