I'm building a new computer with a different motherboard, CPU, and RAM. Can I move the M.2 drives and SSDs from my current system into the new one and use them normally, or will I need to reinstall anything?
3 Answers
You can try transferring the OS drive first. Make sure the computer is online, run Windows Update, and install the new motherboard and chipset drivers. If everything works properly, you may be able to keep the existing installation; if you run into instability or strange hardware problems, reinstall Windows afterward.
A clean install is the most reliable approach. Before moving the OS drive, remove or replace the old chipset and graphics drivers, use a graphics-driver cleanup tool if needed, and download the new motherboard drivers. If you changed important BIOS settings for the old system, resetting the BIOS to defaults before the first boot can also help.
The drives themselves should work fine in the new system. If one contains Windows, though, a fresh installation is usually the safest option because the old chipset, motherboard, and hardware drivers can conflict with the new setup. Other storage drives can generally be moved over without an issue.
So Windows might boot, but reinstalling it is preferred because of the old hardware drivers?
It can still work without a reinstall. Some people have moved the same Windows installation across several major platform upgrades, then installed the new drivers and removed the ones they no longer needed.