How would I install a new motherboard and processor on an old hard drive?

First off, Hard Drives are installed on Motherboards, not the other way around. Second, switching hardware on Windows will be a huge fuss. It's a lot more hassle than it's worth. In the end, you will save yourself a lot of time and energy if you just wiped the drive and re-installed Windows, so that way Windows can configure itself to work with the new hardware. I'm not sure if this is still true in Windows 7, but the last time I switched from Intel to AMD with Windows XP, my system wouldn't boot. When I switched back to the old Intel CPU, Windows was fine. So in order to use my new AMD CPU, I had to re-install Windows. Windows is a lot better with drivers than it was before, and your motherboard should have come with a driver disc. When you install Windows, just pop in the driver disc after the first boot, and let it do it's thing. You have everything you need for the necessities. Also, if you are connected to the Internet, Windows Update will do most of the driver hunting for you.

One can only have so many Bookmarks until they become too numerous to serve their intended purposes. Just saying I have answered this question before many times because upgrades involving saving money and motherboards are quite common. As far as Jerm's contention that there is a lot of fuss involved he is right. However he also suggests a reformatting which will force you to download drivers anyways which is the fussiest part of this procedure. AAUffice to say I went from an OLD AMD system to a fairly modern Intel system. I used an 80GB drive that was included with my Compaq SR1907CL. Yeah AMD 3400+ old CPU. I first downloaded all of my drivers to a folder on the desktop. What I named it was probably Sandy or something like that because I was using a 2500K from Intel. Once I had downloaded the most recent dsrivers from my manufacturer's page It was time for dis-assembly/ I broke it down and built my computer from parts that took me quite some time to afford. When all was said and done I pressed the power button. I probably looked terrified at this point because I had no clue if everything was tied together right. I certainly thought it was but mistakes do happen. Well you know what? She started right up. I got into windows and it immediately started to try and load drivers. I cancelled every single one and closed the "hardware was not installed" messages and then proceeded to run each of my setups that were included in each of my drivers. I think I started with the Sandy bridge chipset drivers and then followed the prompts and restarted as it became necessary throughout the many different drivers. At one point during this Windows of course whined about a MAJOR hardware change. I needed to re-activate and authenticate my Win XP. More on this seemingly apple to oranges moment later okay. I went ahead with this step. I probably didn't breath during this part. It authenticated just fine and I was able to use it until I purchased Win 7. OK now for the XP issue. Some might say uh huh that is XP and 7 won't let you do that. This part of Windows is identical actually. Whether it is XP or 7 the point is that your version of Windows needs to be RETAIL. No not from a retail store. It needs to be the retail version as opposed to the OEM version. THe OEM version clearly states . This OEM System Builder Channel software requires the assembler to provide end user support for the Windows software and cannot be transferred to another computer once it is installed. If you have a computer that only came with a recovery disc or you used an OEM version then you do have to perform a clean install of Windows. Your HDD can not be transferred from one computer to another computer nor can your motherboard be taken out and another one installed. OEM versions are tied to the board they first laid eyes on. It is a monogamous relationship from start to finish. I on the other hand had the RETAIL version of Windows which does allow motherboard to be changed out. You also can't upgrade from XP to Windows 7. EDIT: I didn't uninstall any of my old drivers. I just ran the driver setups and let it do it's thing. At the point when I finally had saved enough money for my gfx card 3 months later I did uninstall my ATI/AMD drivers for my OLD HD 3870's I had installed. I then shut it down and installed my current card which is the 570 Classified HD. I wouldn't worry about uninstalling anything other than your GFX card drivers if you are buying a beefier card. If you are going from Nvidia to Nvidia or ATI/AMD to ATI/AMD I wouldn't worry about that either. I went with this board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130583 . It is under $100 after the MIR. It still has the SLI/Crossfie capability, 6Gb/s Sata Connections, tons of usb 3.0 and 2.0 ports, UEFI BIOS, allows for overclocking and many other features found in more expensive board. I have my CPU @ 4.4GHz right now from 3.3GHz. This is on air with the Cooler Master V8. No there is not a 15 page instuction set for overclocking to this point either. Really simple with this board. Enter BIOS with the delete button when the MSI splach screen goes up Double click Overclocking Double click the multiplier which is at 33( aka 3.3GHz ) choose the number 44 F10 to save and exit. I add on one step. Double click Green Power Enable C1E then F10 to save and exit. What C1E allows is that it gives the 2500K the freedom to throttle back to 1.594MHz even though it is overlcoked to 4.4GHz. When I start pushing my CPU then it will steadily give me more power as necessary. Say for example I want to play Batman. When I go into the game it will stay @ 4.4GHz but still the CPU usage displayed by Playclaw aka GameCorder only shows the CPU usage to go from very low to spikes up to 62% but it hangs right around 40% as far as load percentages go. My RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311