How far can I upgrade without losin the OS?

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dperla

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Hi, I'm new here and I don't want to sound like a noob but,
I'm looking at upgrading pretty much everything on my pc except my hdd, and I don't want to lose my OS.
So if I change it all out will it still boot and run the same OS, or will I have to change things slowly, install drivers yadada?
OR will I have to buy a new copy of w7?
 
If you have an OEM copy of Win7 then it is tied to your motherboard. If you have a retail version then you can reinstall it with a different motherboard.
 
You will have to reinstall the OS. As trotter said OEM you have to get a new license key if you change the MB, retail you technically get 3 licenses (not simultaneously) to reinstall.

If you upgrade everything up the HD you will need to reinstall OS.
 
Is there any reason why you don't want to reload the OS? It's not that hard and it's not a bad idea to put a fresh OS especially if your replacing the motherboard. The issue is when you go to fire up the computer the current Windows OS will have all your old motherboard drivers installed.. I would really just reinstall the OS.
 
Is there any reason why you don't want to reload the OS? It's not that hard and it's not a bad idea to put a fresh OS especially if your replacing the motherboard. The issue is when you go to fire up the computer the current Windows OS will have all your old motherboard drivers installed.. I would really just reinstall the OS.

Well, that and Windows would be all confused with the new hardware not matching up.
 
in the old days of '98 and w2k you could uninstall the drivers and switch pc hard drives (aka "dirty install"). I don't think wpa will let you do that, but I haven't tried it either
 
Reason why they are called "old days". They don't make windows like they used to, and hardware is totally different from back then. ;)
 
I have done it 3 times on this rig before I finally did a fresh install on this SSD. It doesn't harm anything really if Windows will allow it. The OS just installs drivers for the new hardware and is done with it. I'm assuming you are using 7 of course. If we are talking XP then that is a whole different ball game.
 
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