Any reason I can't use existing HD if I upgrade cpu on same mobo?

[sqaguy]

Hello,
I know it's not a good idea to try and use the existing HD if upgrading to a new mobo, but can anyone think of a reason I can't use the HD if I only upgrade the cpu and go into BIOS first time I power back up? I found a really good deal on an AMD 8 core and would like to upgrade, but don't have the 2-3 days to reinstall all my software if I have to do an OS reinstall.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this.

 

[xit]

If you keep the existing motherboard and only change the processor, I think you should be good to go. At worst case you may have to reactivate your OS. You have not stated your operating system but I believe your ok.

 

[rclarke250]

Should be OKAY, I upgrade memory, and Cpu's all the time without reinstalling the OS. Even video cards rarely require a reinstall of the OS. But for a cpu or memory, I've never had it ask me to reinstall, or even re authenticate.

 

[goombawaho]

Agreed. I've even changed motherboards to a SIMILAR but not identical motherboard family member and it didn't require re-activation.

 

[sqaguy]

Thank you all for your responses. Luckily I went back and reviewed the specs on that 8 core and realized it's an AM3+ socket and will not fit my existing mobo. Now I have to decide whether to just get a newer board to go with the cpu (and reinstall everything) or just be happy with what I have. It might even be a good excuse to move to ssd while I'm at it!

 

[rclarke250]

Getting DDS to work right can be tricky, but it is getting better, I now have SSD boot drives on my laptop, and my main desktop, with 500 GB data drives, and I love the speed. Couldn't pay me to go back to just a standard mechanical drive. I used the guide here to put my user folders and app data on the data drive during the install to save space on the install SSD.

 

[goombawaho]

There are cloning programs included with some drives that will allow you to exclude your data from being migrated to the SSD while cloning. Of course, you must copy it to a traditional spinning drive at some point to have it available. But it fixes the problem of moving to a smaller destination/cloned drive.

 

[HarryWild]

I have upgraded another of my computer from HD to SSD and just image the HD to the SSD. Worked fine afterwards without any additional steps.

 

[kjv1611]

Upgrading your HDD has no direct relation to whether you upgrade your motherboard and/or CPU. Windows activation, as mentioned in the replies is something different altogether.

As for the hard drive itself, it will work, so long as the new motherboard supports the same connection type, which I would guess is a SATA drive, and thus it would support it - should be the case for anything on the market today.

As for Windows activation, that also depends: Is it Windows OEM or Retail? If OEM, it's picker, if Retail, so long as it's installed only on one machine, then you should be fine regardless of hardware changes.

And as for upgrading from HDD to SSD, my opinion is: if I were to do it today, I'd go ahead and get an SSD that is a little bigger than I think I need, and just install it as the system drive. Prices aren't really worth the headache of splitting out program files, etc to a separate drive. As far as your data files, moving those is super simple, and I do whether using SSD or not.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57