My experience upgrading DAW hardware without disturbing Cakewalk installation

[David Hardman]

I thought I'd pass along some info on my recent DAW computer upgrade and some pointers to info that helped me in case it would help others. I essentially upgraded the motherboard, CPU and PSU and was able to keep my hard drives without having to reinstall Windows, Cakewalk, or plug-ins. If this is of interest to you, read on ...

The situation: My DAW computer had faithfully served me for a dozen years. Pretty amazing. Had many hardware and software upgrades over the years including memory, Intel Q6600 (core 2 Quad), SDDs, video cards, Windows 10 etc. The motherboard was the same ABIT AB9 Pro and really had been great, but the system was starting to be a bit sluggish. Interestingly, Cakewalk/Sonar had always been stable and still was performing well, but the general system was in need of an upgrade. I considered building a brand new DAW, but wondered if I could replace a small but important set of components that would allow me to continue to upgrade over time. I decided to replace the motherboard, CPU, memory and power supply. I kept the hard drives, video card and case.

The wish: Since I was keeping the hard drives, I wondered if I would just be able to hook them up to the new stuff and like magic everything would work and I wouldn't have to go back and reinstall all the software. Now, I know well that a clean install is preferred and has many benefits. I'm not debating that. For my own reasons, including keeping all the various plug-ins I had collected over time from various versions of CWPA, Sonar, etc., I wanted to see if I could do the hardware upgrade without having to reinstall the OS, apps, Cakewalk, plug-ins etc. Long story short, it worked and all is performing well.

Roadblocks and tips: It was fairly straightforward, but I did have to do a few things before and after to make sure that things were working and optimized.

• Windows 10 activation (ensuring your license transfers): It turns out that if you upgrade the motherboard/CPU then Windows 10 thinks you are on a different system and you have to reactivate Windows 10. I found the info in the following two links helpful. I had upgraded for free to Windows 10 from Windows 7, so I didn't really have a Windows 10 license key proper. In the end, I had to call Microsoft and they asked me for my Windows 7 order number and that was enough to validate my license and they gave me a new key to use. Also, there are some tips in the first link about ensuring you are using the right disk controller driver so you can see the drives when booting from the new setup.
  • https://scottiestech.info/2010/03/17/upgrade-your-motherboard-without-reinstalling-your-os/
  • https://scottiestech.info/2017/02/26/upgrade-your-motherboard-without-reinstalling-windows-10/
• MBR vs. GPT for disk partitions: My OS and Audio drives were two separate SSDs. I have two hard disks for back up and I decided to try an Intel Optane m.2 module to accelerate the largest of the two hard drives. The problem was, to do this the drives had to be using a GPT (GUID Partition Table). But, since my system was upgraded from the older Windows 7, my drives were all MBR (Master Boot Record). The following two links helped me understand what needed to be done, but in the end I used EaseUS Partition Master (worth every penny) to convert all the drives to GPT. Then, I was able to install the Intel Optane software and configure it to accelerate the drive.

  • https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000024558/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-memory.html

  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/bringup/mbr2gpt-tool-test-guidance

Final outcome: I have a much faster DAW now with minimal effort in reinstalling software. YMMV and if you have the time, a clean install is likely best.  But if you decide to try this, I hope the above tips help.

Edited February 21, 2019 by David Hardman
sent too soon first time

[RBH]

Wow - this is the first time I've heard of this type of surgery. Amazing that you were able to pull this off. I'm in a situation where I inherited a DAW from a family member that passed away. We both had pretty similar DAW set-ups and had a number of software packages duplicated. Our main DAWS of choice were different - but we both had a couple of common DAW packages. I was able to contact a couple of the software companies and able to change licensing on a few, but I don't have the capability to port over all licensing and I'm  feeling stuck with an older WIN7  install - even though it operates pretty efficiently and is robust. I have never held hope that I could possibly update hardware and OS software and come out unscathed. -  Your post gives me some hope - thanks.