I recently acquired a new MoBo, CPU, and RAM kit to upgrade my platform for the first time in just about a decade. What I failed to consider until now is the near requirement of a clean Windows install after the upgrade.
I want to retain as much of my personal files, installed software, Windows and Explorer settings, etc. as humanly possible after the reinstall, WITHOUT retaining any files/drivers that could possibly cause performance loss and/or conflicts. I also use Classic Shell, if that matters.
On Windows 10 Home x64, and my current C: drive is a 1TB SSD, and I plan on backing it up to a 4TB HDD I bought for data hording. GPU and other PCIe cards will remain the same, along with a stack of storage HDDs with various media files and installed software/games.
I just kept the same hard drive (or cloned it to a new SSD) when I built my PCs. Pretty much just worked same as before.