Windows 10: Moving Windows 10 to new hardware motherboard and drives

I am planning to install a new motherboard and drives, an upgrade. Old one is 5 years old. I want to retain all my apps and data without having to reinstall everything or in some cases replace with new. Currently Windows is on an M.2 180 GB drive and data on a 1 TB HDD. I used the option to separate OS and apps from data for performance. I also have a graphics card that I will upgrade too. I would like to keep the same setup. I will replace the current M.2 drive with a new bigger M.2 that operates on PCie rather than SATA. The HDD I can replace either as an SSD or an additional M.2, the new board has 2 M.2 slots. I know that there are many cloning or recovery type apps available.


Since Windows is installed in old configuration, what happens when the new one starts up with a new and different hardware configuration? Does Windows just go through a detect new hardware thing? Or would Windows fail and not startup at all? Since Windows was setup to put the OS and apps on one drive and data on another will that cause an issue? Should the old 1 TB HDD be installed in the new system to get through the initial startup? Would it be better to remove the graphics card and uninstall all its drivers before starting anything? I think I need to clone Windows and apps on the old M.2 drive onto a separate drive and install it into the new system. Then once getting Windows to complete installing on the new system, clone the old HDD on to something new?


I might be making this all more complex than necessary. I fear losing Windows, apps and data when making the upgrade.

:)

 

Moving a storage device to a whole new set of hardware

You can certainly move the SSD but Windows will not run for these reasons:

• Invalid product key. All Windows product keys are tied to the hardware (CPU, motherboard etc.)
• Invalid HAL. The correct Hardware Abstraction Layer gets established at installation time. It will be incorrect when moving the disk to different hardware.

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

Moving C Drive to a new motherboard

Hello,

I am downsizing my motherboard to a smaller form factor motherboard. Will my C drive Windows 10 Home software boot and work on the new motherboard?