New bits.

[Dadtom65]

Hi Guys. I’m just about to upgrade my computer with a new motherboard and Cpu and been thinking about my games like FS2020. So obviously they are on hard drives so as long as I keep the same hard drive letters there should not be any problems should there or will I have to reinstall everything again. I hope not. . Thanks Derek.

[B12]

Depends Dad Tom IMHO.

If you are going from Intel to Intel and same chipset and OS and same for AMD and OS ... Windows 10, then probably after a few restarts and updates and chipset driver updating, it should ... Windows 10 is quite robust and not so fussy as older MS OS's that way.

But if you ever experienced a bug or a crash (and you will ... we all do) you would never be sure what caused it and be left with nagging doubts.

Its a thought, a bit of an upheaval to go install a fresh new OS and especially for downloading FS2020 again afresh, it takes time and patience, but both will reward you for being so thorough, but for me and many I know and as a general rule of thumb, swapping out a GPU is OK so long as you clean out old drivers and especially if it was from the other team But swapping chipsets and CPU's of vastly different pedigree is not advisable.

Best way to go after a major hardware upgrade is a brand new start IMHO.

Good luck and best whatever you decide

[Dadtom65]

Thanks B12. I have a new Asus Tuf Gaming H570 is it m/b together with a new i7 11700K Rocket Lake Cpu and I’m hoping this should see me out so to speak. So I might have to reinstall everything again. As they say Bar Humbug. Dam I thought I could get away with out reinstalling everything. Thanks Derek.

[renault]

Hi Derek

 

My computer shop went through the scenario you described when my current machine was built. They simply brought two SSD's from

the old machine and installed them in the new machine without any issues and  I am still using them today.

 

The really important bit though, is that these two drives only had Data and programs that did not have a Windows registry entry. 

Any other program that I had that was a conventional Windows based program which installed and was registered in the

normal way had to be reinstalled.

 

"Best way to go after a major hardware upgrade is a brand new start IMHO " @B12

 

Very sound advice and not what you were hoping to hear unfortunately.  But if you just have data or standalone programs on a drive

then my  experience is that the drive can just be plugged into the new machine and it should work.

 

Hope this is of help.

Pete

 

 

Edited August 7, 2021 by renault

[B12]

Yep,  swap over data back up drives by all means, I do that all the time, but anything like an OS or what we do here FS wise, really needs a brand new install for best results on a major hardware change.

 

[Nick Cooper]

Hello Derek,

although it is most certainly best practice to start with a clean reinstallation, you can get away with a reinstallation of Windows 10 using

the Windows Media Creation Tool.

First, change the hardware and just run the PC.

Windows 10 will make it work.

Make sure that after that, your drives have the same drive letters that they had before you changed the hardware.

Make a note before you start and change them as necessary.

If your motherboard comes with drivers or better still, like many do these days, it invites you to download an app that installs all the proprietary

drivers for you, do that.

Then run the Windows Media Creation tool.

Once you have downloaded the files, you will be offered the option of a clean install (keep nothing) or keep all my files.

Select keep everything and Windows will be reinstalled, detect all your new hardware and use the correct drivers.

A windows.old folder containing your old installation will be created, that can be removed once you are happy that everything still works.

I did this myself and encountered no problems thereafter.

As mentioned at the start of my post, this is not best practice, as has been said, but it will work.

 

 

[W2DR]

Unless you've had some experience(s) in troubleshooting the myriad of problems that may occur otherwise you really, really need to consider a complete reinstall. It's not the fastest nor easiest solution but it's the best solution (IMNSHO) as it works 100% of the time.

[Dadtom65]

So what you are saying is, I know I will have to reinstall Windows but will I have to reinstall say MSFS as well and like just been playing Crysis again. Will it be best to reinstall them again. Thanks Derek.

[Nick Cooper]

Hello Derek,

I recently reinstalled Windows from scratch, as you are being advised to do.

If you leave your MSFS folder intact, of course, MSFS must not be installed on the C drive,

when you come to reinstall it, just point the installer at the existing folder.

It will then say that it is installing, but in fact it is just checking the files.

Once it has done that, it will just work.