I'm planning to upgrade my PC by swapping out the GPU, motherboard, RAM, and CPU, but I want to keep my SSD and hard drive as they are. I'm worried—will I lose any of my downloads, software, or photos during this process? I know this might sound like a silly question, but I'm really new to building computers and just want to be sure!
5 Answers
After swapping the motherboard, you will likely need to wipe your SSDs to do a clean installation of Windows, so backing up everything is a smart move!
To play it safe, consider having a dedicated drive for your important software and photos. That way, you can have another main drive with Windows on it. When making hardware changes, Windows may not boot properly since it’s designed to work with your original CPU and GPU. So, having separated important files can protect you from accidental loss.
Not a stupid question at all! Your files should still be on your drives, but you will need to uninstall old hardware drivers and install the new ones for your GPU and motherboard to work properly.
There's a possibility that Windows might not work on the new hardware after the swap. It's best to do a clean Windows installation because that could wipe everything on your drives, so make sure to back up anything important first. You may also need a new Windows activation key afterwards.
You shouldn't lose anything, but keep in mind you might not have full access to everything right away. Using partitions on your drives or having multiple drives can help—you can keep Windows on one drive and your personal files safe on another. This way, when you do a fresh install, your files remain intact.
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