Do I have to wipe my hard drive after installing a new motherboard?

[Hue Neutron]

Im getting a new motherboard and CPU but im using the same hard drive. Does it need to be empty before I start the computer with the new stuff, or will it still have all my data?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Does the old motherboard work and can you still boot into your OS with that?

What is the Old and New motherboard models?

Which OS do you have?

[Hue Neutron]

Yeah old motherboard still works and I can boot into the os. Old one is some crappy prebuilt pegatron Mobo but the new is an Asus h61. Gonna use Windows 10 on both

[Bad 💀 Motha]

You have to buy a new Product Key for Windows OEM if you are changing Motherboards.

If your Windows OS is Retail, then you are free to use that on a new Motherboard, as long as the one will no longer be using that same OS Key.

You have an OEM HP PreBuild correct? So yea you will need a new OS Key for any Motherboard change (unless replacing it with the same board)

Generally yes given what you are changing to, from, you will want to do a clean Win10 install.
I would (since your system still working) re-download and re-run the Win10 Media Creation Tool from Microsoft's website to ensure you get the latest Win10 OS Build; be prepared with a 4GB Minimum USB Flash Drive to download the OS to when using this tool.

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/fk8spb

[Hue Neutron]

Why can't I just download that tool to the flash drive and boot from USB on the new Mobo, instead of paying for the key?

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Castiel の投稿を引用：

Why can't I just download that tool to the flash drive and boot from USB on the new Mobo, instead of paying for the key?

Depends how you want to do things. OEM are cheaper than retail because the key lock itself in place to the hardware it register with, if you have the retail version of windows you're free to install the OS on anything you want as much as you want, but it can only be active on one PC at a time.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Castiel の投稿を引用：

Why can't I just download that tool to the flash drive and boot from USB on the new Mobo, instead of paying for the key?

Well what are downloading from Microsoft site is just the "Media Creation Tool"
That has to be then run on an existing system, so it can then download the actual OS onto a Flash Drive and make the Flash Drive bootable. Once that has been done, you would boot off this usb drive on a system you wish to actually install the OS to. The installer itself has no direct ties to any product keys.

You had an HP (OEM system) so that OS can't be used on any other Motherboard.

You are free to download Win10 from Microsoft and use it without any key at all; but you will need a paid product key at some point.