New motherboard: reinstall windows without loosing data?

Hello, how are you?
My name is Paloma B., I am very happy to be able to try to help you in the best possible way.

I understand that you would like to reinstall Windows to work after replacing the motherboard.

Probably the configurations and compatibility of the motherboards are different, that's why it didn't work and they recommended reinstalling Windows.

As for the backup, yes, the ideal is to have performed it before the exchange, you can try to put the old motherboard, start Windows and perform a backup of important files.

Or if possible, you can connect the disk where the data is saved to another computer as a secondary, access it through Windows Explorer and copy the data.

After that, to perform a clean Windows installation, please follow the threads below, they are very detailed and will help you in this process.

For this, you will first need to create a Windows installation USB, just follow the topic below. If necessary, you can create the USB on another computer.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

After completing the creation of the USB, follow this thread, it is very detailed and will assist you in the clean installation of Windows.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/wiki...

I await news.

If these procedures helped you in any way, please click on "I solved my problem" and also mark as an answer, so you can help others users.

We will always be available for whatever you need!

Hello Paloma,

Thanks for you relply!

Unfortunately I will have to remove the old motherboard and re-install the old one, and haven’t had the chance to do that yet, as this will demande quite some time..

I have acquired now 2 usb sticks, so I’ll be able to back with one, and create the boot with the other one.

When backing up all the data from the SSD, is there a way to create an image of it, so when I reinstall windows, I can have everything in my SSD as it used to be?

But before this is done I have another question:

How will the fresh installation behave with my other hard drives? I have quite a few software installed on them, and have absolutely no way, no time, no hardware or money to backup all of them. Will everything be recognized directly?

Thanks again for the super swift reply!

Hi,

It may be that your Bios is set for UEFI Bios and the existing Windows installation is installed for "Legacy" Bios, or vice versa..

It also may be that you need to set the Boot Device in the Bios before it will find it..

A quick option would be to hit F9, F11, F12, or Esc, which ever your Bios uses, to select a one time Boot Device, and see what appears..

Replacing the motherboard would be an absolute last resort I would think...

Hi Slance,

Unfortunately I had to reinstall my old motherboard, save everything, create the Windows boot.

Pressing F11 wasn't working: it making me reboot on the BIOS.

So anyway, I just freshly re-installed Windows in the SSD (it was btw a nightmare, as my SSD apparently had a MBR partition... I don't understand why there is no easy solution from Windows to convert the partition to GBT. Thanks YouTube) and now I have a new issue!

So it seems I had Windows Professional, and I just installed Windows Home, so even if I could login with my Windows Login and Password, Windows can't be reactivated in this computer!! I am slowly getting annoyed by this waterfall of issues coming along with Windows.

So what should I do? re-install AGAIN Windows and this time choose Windows Pro? My Microsoft Account works, is recognized, so what is the issue?

I an sure that this not the end of my fun, as I yet have to re-plug my 3 other drives, which I am sure, won't work.

If you have a retail licence for Windows 10 Pro then you should have installed Pro edition and not Home edition. Do you have a licence key for Pro or did you previously upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Pro?

Can you explain more about the licence you have and where it came from. What you have described so far regarding MBR and GPT is the difference between an older motherboard and a new motherboard and not to do with windows.

Licencing of Windows 10 will depend on whether the licence you have is retail or OEM.

OEM is not transferrable to a new motherboard as it is provided by the manufacturer of the previous system to be used with their motherboard only.

Retail is a licence bought separately from the computer has transfer rights to a new system. (motherboard)

If you previously signed in using you Microsoft account then clean install Windows 10 Pro and (assuming you don't have a licence key) go to Settings > Update and security > Activation > Troubleshoot and follow the instructions to move the licence to the new device.

I would have imagined than such a product would have a simple way to switch/upgrade from one version to another, especially if the account is recognized, and acknowledged that I have a valid version of Windows (just a different.. type)

I had to re-install windows pro, and after more clicks, the version is finally activated.

How would a lambda user know about this MBR and GPT thing? When following the tutorials on how to back the data, create the Windows boot USB to reinstall it, nowhere is it mention. Or do these tutorials assume users have brand new hard drive?

Or is it a normal procedure to go through this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb6tECZP6WE&ab_channel=Britec09

And the troubleshooting didn't help.

Thanks everyone for trying to help! The computer boots now on Windows, so here comes all the fun to try and recover all the data... And I candidly thought all this would be easy in 2021 using Windows 10 :)

Hi,

The GPT\MBR issue is likely the cause of your original problem.. That was what I was getting at with the UEFI\Legacy comment..

If your old motherboard was set for Legacy and the new one for UEFI it would require a change in how the SSD\HDD is Initialized.. You would then have two options...

1) Change the Bios type of the new motherboard to match the old one...

2) Change the SSD to match the new motherboard, which seems is what you eventually ended up doing with the GPT and reinstallation..

As a note.. A lot of new HDD\SSD's are not Initialized when new anymore, with the exception of external USB drives..

The first thing that would pop up after connecting one would be how to "Initialize" it..

Unfortunately the same doesn't happen when you are reinstalling windows.. The UEFI Bios you are using also uses a different setup for it's creation than one for Legacy..

Glad you have resolved this by the good old trial and error method.. I have solved a lot of my own issues that way over the years..

Hi, my name is Anderson Souza, I hope I can help you with your issue.

After a clean installation of Windows, all previously installed programs and applications will need to be reinstalled.