Rebuild Advice

[slaughteredlamb]

We, and by we I mean me, are going to be upgrading all our audio PC's in the next few weeks with brand new motherboards, CPU's and RAM. In the past when I've done this I've also done a fresh install of Windows as we've also replaced the hard drives but this time we are keeping the drives.

Would it be best to wipe the drive and do a fresh Windows install or could I keep the existing Windows install and just load on the relevant new motherboard drivers? If I can keep the existing install do I need/should I uninstall the existing motherboard drivers?

[Dom]

The last time I changed a motherboard, I kept the hard drives and Windows installation, and it installed the new motherboard drivers the first time I turned the machine on after swapping the mobo out. I didn't have any problems at all, although Windows did ask me to re-activate/validate Windows online, as a piece of major hardware had changed. I had to do it by phone though, as the online validation thing failed for some reason. 30 seconds and it was all done though.

It's always good to do a fresh install of Windows I think, but as I say, I didn't bother the last time, and Windows just handled everything for me with no problems. That was with Windows 7 just FYI.

[robwhizz]

Difficult question to answer.

Changing mobos and just updating drivers can work. You need to look at how much of a change there is going to be. Big jumps in architecture can give big headaches and can stop you even booting into windows to get the new drivers installed.
I've managed to upgrade mobos in the past, but that was when there was similar/same series of chipset etc. More recently I tried updating my son's PC, Old AMD to new AMD, but it was a no go. Quicker and easier to start fresh than try stripping out drivers to get it booting without knowing if I could have problems down the road even if I did manage to install the current drivers and get it working.
You may need to uninstall a lot of hidden device drivers will still keeping to system running and booting, so you can swap the mobo and install new drivers. That could be a massive time waster and headache.

How old are your PCs, how big is the change?

I would try a sample first (assuming your PCs are all the same or very similar) and see how it goes. If it works run it for a few days and see if you get any problems. Then you can make the decision to install fresh or upgrade.

Bottom line is that it's always going to be better to install clean, but once you factor in time and reinstalling software and set up it may be better to upgrade if you can and it doesn't give you any major problems.

[Matt]

I would never not do a clean install if upgrading the motherboard, personally - but what the others have said is a fair breakdown of pros/cons

[slaughteredlamb]

Cheers all. Think I might try one system and see how that goes but suspect it's gonna be a complete re-install