Windows 10 System Transfer Driver Question

I plan to upgrade my rig's mobo and its respected ram and processor. Specifically I will be upgrading to a ASUS AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus mobo and a AMD Ryzen 5 3600. I understand that software like EaseUS Todo Backup allow to place an OS drive from one computer to another with different hardware as long as I load in the drivers for the new system during the system transfer. This makes it easier so that I don't have to reinstall the operating system and start from scratch spending hours loading in all my software and re-personalizing it. I've never performed a System Transfer before so I wanted to reach out here to get any information on the matter that anyone would like to share. I understand it is recommended to perform a new OS install on a new system and I get that. However, if I can save hours performing a System Transfer that would make life easier.

If anyone has any experience on performing a System Transfer using a specific software or just has broad advice on the subject feel free to add your 2 cents here. From my understanding the reason why one can't just swap an OS drive from one computer to another using different hardware is because of drivers and the end result is a BSOD. But by injecting the necessary drivers for the new motherboard/chipset on the OS that was being used on one machine can be physically placed into another machine with different components.

Running Windows 10 x64 Pro 1909.

I would advise AGAINST it simply because we are in a weird transition period in terms of driver technology.

Old drivers have control panels on the task bar (Realtek HD audio manager) vs new DCH drivers (Realtek audio console app downloaded from the Microsoft store). This extends to graphics card driver, touchpad driver, wifi drivers...

New DCH drivers are very finicky on how it is installed. One wrong move, you lose the control panel but the new app cannot be installed from the Microsoft store. You can google just how many people lost the audio enhancements tab on Realtek audio drivers and nobody knows how to help them. The tab is supposed to disappear because the enhancements are done in the app --- which they cannot get it installed.

So extend this problem to graphics card, wifi card, laptop touchpad...

I've moved installations of Windows 10 between different computers many times with no problems at all. Windows 10 handles changes in hardware much better than previous versions.

NavyLCDR said:

I've moved installations of Windows 10 between different computers many times with no problems at all. Windows 10 handles changes in hardware much better than previous versions.

Did you use any specific software to move the installation? Did you have to provide .inf drivers for the new machine? Or did you just swap the drive and your good to go? Thanks!

NavyLCDR said:

I've moved installations of Windows 10 between different computers many times with no problems at all. Windows 10 handles changes in hardware much better than previous versions.

The issue is timing. If he did it a year ago, then he would not have to roll the dice on whether the Microsoft AI suddenly push a DCH driver on him, leaving him with no control panel and no UWP app to configure his hardware devices.

JDubbedN said:

Did you use any specific software to move the installation? Did you have to provide .inf drivers for the new machine? Or did you just swap the drive and your good to go? Thanks!

I've done both. Just moved the physical drive over and also have saved and then restored an image Macrium Reflect Free. Did not do anything with drivers beforehand.

The two stopping points will be UEFI v. Legacy BIOS and SATA controller mode IDE v. AHCI v. RAID, if they are different between the two computers.

Legacy BIOS v. UEFI and IDE v. AHCI modes are easy to overcome. I can't speak about RAID because never dealt with it.

Hello!
Yes, it is possible and I have done it any times. Of course you have to make sure you go from UEFI to UEFI or BIOS/CMS to BIOS/CMS and from AHCI to AHCI or IDE to IDE, don't mix any of those! If you move from an older AMD system to a newer AMD system the chances to succeed are even bigger. If you move from Intel to AMD you might see a BSOD due to large differences in hardware. The smaller the difference (eg AMD 2-3 generations older to new AMD) the larger the chance for success. On first boot Windows 10 will try to find drivers for the new hardware and you might see a black screen for several seconds. Don't touch it! If you turn off the computer and interrupt the process Windows might be corrupt and BSOD next time. So let it finish and load the desktop or the login screen. Then login, make sure you install latest AMD drivers for the motherboard (chipset) and CPU or graphics card and then restart the PC. Not sooner! Of course if there are some issues in your old Windows 10 installation they will be also transferred to the new system and performance may not be the best. But it is certainly preferable than a clean installation that would take you hours to complete.

Provided this is your first transfer, Windows 10 and Office (and probably some other applications) should be activated again without any problem. For other applications (eg Photoshop) it might be possible to deactivate them in the old system before the transfer so you can use the same license on the new system.