I just upgraded my PC from a I5-3350 to a Ryzen 5 1600. I was fully intending for windows to not even boot and needing to do a clean install of Win10. Powering on the system for the first time just to ensure everything was working windows starts to boot up. Not only does it start it completely boots. It went through detecting a bunch of hardware. I restarted, etc. Everything seems to be working completely and 100% fine. I was quite shocked. At this point, I'm asking myself why even re-install Windows?? Should I just go with it and just do a clean install if I start running into any problems?
Reinstall because windows is like a ticking time-bomb. Eventually it'll fall apart, especially through big updates/upgrades
I hear win7/8/10 react better to hw changes specially mb/cpu then previous windows, so the answer subjective, need no? should you maybe? (I would but) Do you care to if it working?
I had your reaction too when I took the boot SSD from my old i7 920 PC and plugged it into my sig PC during the win10 free upgrade offer. It actually booted and everything worked just fine! You might end up reinstalling windows anyway due to MS' updates especially during the early days of a new win10 release
If all is working then do not reinstall. When problems start to popup then reinstall. After all your OS is just added several new devices and put some old ones into 'ghost' state. Most of system devices even do not need actual drivers, and many new devices will use the same drivers as old ones - like PCI-E root complex (aka PCI bus).
Not needed, but recommended. I went from Core 2 Quad to Skylake on 8.1 and it was working fine, but I reinstalled anyway .
I upgraded from 8.1 to 10 through all those big updates changing motherboards along the way and never clean installed. Clean install for me is a major pain so I avoid at all costs.I have no problems at all. I think that's just a holdover from XP days when it was necessary.
You are just like my friend, avoiding and doing everything he can just not to clean install. Idk why is that such a pain for some. I have nothing on my C: drive (SSD) but drivers and programs, everything else is on hard drives. Probably can do clean install in not more than 20min.
I wouldn't do a clean install unless it's absolutely necessary. Question: Obviously you had to also change motherboards when switching CPU's. I am thinking about upgrading from my FX-6300 to a Ryzen 1600X at some point and it would also need a new motherboard. If the system in question here is Windows 10, did your Windows activation remain in place? Win 10 activation is supposedly tied to the whole machine now and not just to the hard drive like it was in the past. I am worried that when I do the upgrade, I will also have to get a new license for Windows 10. I may also switch to an SSD from my HDD. My license is also for an OEM version. How has your performance been affected? Is it a solid upgrade for you?
It's a huge hassle if you only use one drive for everything. It takes not only hours, but days to get everything back in place. I avoid clean installs like the plague.
Yes, it did trigger my Windows activation. I do have a retail copy and called into MS for help. They had me go to a run prompt and enter "slui 3". When I did that it let my enter my original product code from Win7 (I did the free upgrade to 10 from Win7). After entering my original product code it was activated again. I don't know if the tech did something on his end to allow that to happen or what. As far as the upgrade goes, yeah its very solid for me. That PC is used as my Holodeck that I have my Vive connected to and it pretty much a dedicated VR PC. Since the I5-3350 is below the recommend minimum specs I was running into some problems with games and low frame rates at times. I've verified a game I was having problems with, Everest VR and that ran really, really good with the upgraded CPU. I played some Onward and that seemed very solid too. No low frame warnings.
Thanks everyone for all the responses! I'm just going to keep going with it. If I have any problems I'll do a clean install.