First build/ modify

[cully]

Hi everyone,
I purchased a gateway computer, model # 7200X about 1 1/2 years ago. I have been rebuilding it over the last couple of months. I now have a thermaltake armor case, an ocz 700 wt power supply, an evga 7950 GT vga 2 GB ram, and a creative audio card. I just purchased a new motherboard, Asus P5N-E SLI along with 2 GB of crucial ballistx ddr2 800 ram. I installed everything but my system will not boot up. I am guessing that my harddrive still has the old chipset info on it and will not accept the new motherboard chipset without refomating my hardrive. Am I right? Also, as I have not refomated a harddrive before is it hard to do?
Thanks
Cully

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by cully Hi everyone, I purchased a gateway computer, model # 7200X about 1 1/2 years ago. I have been rebuilding it over the last couple of months. I now have a thermaltake armor case, an ocz 700 wt power supply, an evga 7950 GT vga 2 GB ram, and a creative audio card. I just purchased a new motherboard, Asus P5N-E SLI along with 2 GB of crucial ballistx ddr2 800 ram. I installed everything but my system will not boot up. I am guessing that my harddrive still has the old chipset info on it and will not accept the new motherboard chipset without refomating my hardrive. Am I right?

No, you don't have to reformat...you can try doing a WinXP Repair Install (unless you're using some other OS...which one are you using?).

Originally Posted by cully Also, as I have not refomated a harddrive before is it hard to do?

Nope, not hard at all. Do you have your OS installation CD?

Cricket

[cully]

Originally Posted by Cricket No, you don't have to reformat...you can try doing a WinXP Repair Install (unless you're using some other OS...which one are you using?).Nope, not hard at all. Do you have your OS installation CD? Cricket

I had windows XP on it from the start. I purchased a new copy to install. I also purchased a new external harddrive so I can use it for backups.

[cully]

Originally Posted by cully I had windows XP on it from the start. I purchased a new copy to install. I also purchased a new external harddrive so I can use it for backups.

I was told by the tech support at Asus that my original copy of widows XP would still have the chipset info from the original motherboard and therefore be useless. They said I would have to purchase another copy and have the harddrive reformatted as it contained the same chipset info. Is this all true?

[Alaron]

You need to do the Repair installation. It will simply use the XP CD you have to reinstall all of the Windows files again overtop of your existing installation. This will allow Windows to recognize your new motherboard and bootup, while also retaining all of your data.