Going back to 32 from 64 when you have a quarter of the right drivers.

[Eedarf]

Ok, here's the history and the specs:

Motherboard: A8N32-SLI (No Driver)
Graphics Card: GeForce 7900 (Beta Driver)
Hard Drive: Something 500Gb 7,800rpm
Processor: AMD Athlon Dual Core 4800+
Ram: 2Gb Corsair (2 sticks)

I wanted to build my first computer and like any fledgling builder, I wanted it to rock. So I took out a 3,000 dollar loan and went to work. Tirelessly 7 hours straight I hand picked the parts from NewEgg.com. They all arrived within a week, to my great delight. I assembled and powered on, after a few minor issues. I installed my Operating System. I guess that's where I went wrong. I picked 64bit Pro. My computer has no drivers and consistently overheated when I ran games (I don't run games anymore). I haven't registered the 64 XP yet and I have 14 days to do so. I bought a 32bit OEM, but I can't run it. I can find no where to enable booting from disk, rightclicking the harddrive to format doesn't work, it tells me to disable all disk utilities. I no longer have the 64 bit OEM, I ebayed it with a minor loss of 22 dollars. I direly wish for my computer to work, if someone could please tell me how to simply remove the 64 and put the 32 on. There's no data that I wish to save. Just out with 64 and in with 32. I'm begging...

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

You can boot with a 32-bit XP CD normally, delete the existing partitions and create new ones. You'll need at least XP SP1 to be able to see the whole hard disk (older XP has 137 GB limit), and you might need a floppy with SATA driver on it. You'll need to select booting from CD from BIOS (I guess you got x64 installed somehow too).

But what drivers were missing from x64?

Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe drivers

Nvidia Forceware x64 driver, not beta

I don't think overheating was x64's fault either.

 

[Eedarf]

The problem is the same though. I can't boot from disk. There isn't even an option for it, unless I've missed it somewhere in the 4 options I have in my BIOS.

What if I took the harddrive out and put it in another computer as a secondary, formatted it, then stuck it back in? Where would I be then?

 

[mailpup]

You must have missed it. Look at page 4-37 of your motherboard manual.

 

[Eedarf]

I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who put effort into helping me. I finally did it. I built my own computer and despite burning out a 400w powersupply, almost frying my video card and ebaying XP 64bit a week before the wave of compatible drivers was released, I have finally stopped toiling to stand before an incredible gaming machine. It's because of every one of you, that ever replied to my over zealous, under informed and blatently foolish posts, that I accomplished this. I've learned a lot from this experience.

Thank you again.