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How to replace an existing motherboard on Windows 8.1 without reformatting?

476 views 12 replies 5 participants last post by  JKuhn 
#1 ·
I'm planning on replacing my B85 mobo with a Z97 motherboard and want to do it with as little trouble as possible. I would prefer to not to have to install a clean version as I have pretty slow internet and it would take a while to reinstall everything (4mbps down). Or alternatively is there a tool I can use to back everything up to an external harddrive and then restore it once I've got the new motherboard installed?
 
#4 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ebhsimon View Post

So upgrading from an MSI B85 board to an Asus Z97 board I just take the MSI out, and drop the Asus in and it'll work?
Yea! It would help just uninstalling the previous boards drivers/applications but other than that you're set!
 
#6 ·
On older Windoze versions I'd definitely say re-install, but on Win8 you can just swap out the parts, wait for Windoze to reconfigure, and re-activate (you'll probably have to phone them because that license "is used on another computer"). That's what I recently did when going from a Sandy Bridge Pentium to the new G3258.

Oh, and don't complain about your internet, mine's 2 Mbit on paper, and usually 500-900Kbit in real life.
biggrin.gif
 
#7 ·
Thanks a lot for the info guys, for some reason I thought it was way more complicated than it really is!

And @JKuhn 4mbps is roughly 500kb/s, and the fastest I've ever downloaded was I think 650kb/s... Not impressive seeing as I'm a few streets away from people who have the option of fiber getting true 100+mbps.
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ebhsimon View Post

Thanks a lot for the info guys, for some reason I thought it was way more complicated than it really is!

And @JKuhn 4mbps is roughly 500kb/s, and the fastest I've ever downloaded was I think 650kb/s... Not impressive seeing as I'm a few streets away from people who have the option of fiber getting true 100+mbps.
With the 500 kb/s, do you mean kilobits or kilobytes? The speeds I mentioned are Kbits and Mbits. If you only get 500 kilobits/s on a 4Mb/s line, then I take back what I said about not complaining.
 
#9 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKuhn View Post

[/B]

With the 500 kb/s, do you mean kilobits or kilobytes? The speeds I mentioned are Kbits and Mbits. If you only get 500 kilobits/s on a 4Mb/s line, then I take back what I said about not complaining.
when i say mbps i mean Mbits, when i said kb/s i mean kilobytes per second. 500 kilobits is just terrible... I'm 'supposed' to have a 3-5Mbps line so I guess 4Mbps is okay.
 
#10 ·
I went from a Phenom II 1090T Crosshair III to a 980x and Rampage III without a reinstall. Like the other guy said, just remove certain drivers first from the previous platform.

Might need to reactivate windows though.

I just reinstalled windows today, it's pretty annoying and boring!
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ebhsimon View Post

when i say mbps i mean Mbits, when i said kb/s i mean kilobytes per second. 500 kilobits is just terrible... I'm 'supposed' to have a 3-5Mbps line so I guess 4Mbps is okay.
You're right about that. And to prevent later misunderstandings, bit is a "b", and byte is "B".

I do sometimes go as high as 1.8 Mb/s, but that's very rare. Even 1.1 is unusual.
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrTOOSHORT View Post

I went from a Phenom II 1090T Crosshair III to a 980x and Rampage III without a reinstall. Like the other guy said, just remove certain drivers first from the previous platform.

Might need to reactivate windows though.

I just reinstalled windows today, it's pretty annoying and boring!
What kind of drivers do I remove, and do I remove them from 'add or remove programs'?
 
#13 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ebhsimon View Post

What kind of drivers do I remove, and do I remove them from 'add or remove programs'?
Personally I didn't even bother. If you get problems though, check the Add/Remove Software and remove anything from your old board that isn't needed. You'll have to see what those drivers are.
 
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