hard drive error on partially new build

[ammo]

I just built a sort of new build. Everything is new except for the hard drive, cd-rom, and floppy drive. I have an Asus mobo with the 865 chipset and when I started the computer a blue screen came up and said there was a hard drive error and windows could not start followed by a bunch of options like disconnecting the hard drive and checking for viruses. Should I reformat the drive and install a clean OS since the hard drive still has all the old info from the previous system? I was able to go into BIOS. I checked the jumpers and they were good. Also the BIOS isn't detecting the dvd-rom drive but the drive works as far as I can tell.

[blue60007]

If you've replaced everything but the hard drive (CD and floppy) you may have to do a repair install on XP, otherwise a reformat is probably your best option on other OS's unless you have any files that need to be saved.

[nerdz53]

I have the same problem with my new build. You could put the hard drive into another computer and reformat it. Then, put it back into the new build and reinstall Windows.

[Gizmo]

Or if the OS has been on that hard drive ever since it's been in a previous setup, it's possible the bootsector is just damaged. In which case just boot with the OS CD and use the fixboot command in the repair console.

[nerdz53]

You could also insert the OS disk, then go to bios and under boot options, chenage the settings so that the PC boots from the CD/DVD drive. Once you've got Windows installed, switch the boot back to your hard drive.