I'm afraid so

Sorry in advance if this is a little long:

I recently decided to build a new PC. I kind of had to because mine wasn't really scalable. It had a 300w power supply and slow RAM Slots, etc. Anyway, here is my situation:

I don't know a whole lot about computers, and this is my first build. I bought a Barebones:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/se...E=WEBLET01ORDER

A new Chip:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/se...E=WEBLET01ORDER

A Video Card:
Cant find link but it's a GeForce 9600GT.

I already had 2 300gb HDs on my Gateway, so I am trying to keep those. I am also using it's DVD R/W.

The Problem(s)!

I have only hooked up one hard drive at this point: The one with VISTA on it. I don't have a Vista CD or DVD that came with the PC, just a system restore partition on the HD, so I left the drive intact. A buddy had told me that he "thinks" it should work because Vista allows you one major hardware change, and that even if it didn't, I could just call someone and get it activated.

Now, as you may have guessed, this didn't happen. My system boots up but as it tries to go into Windows(when the little green progress bar and "Microsoft" appear), I get a super fast BSoD which I can't possibly read then reboot. Then Startup Repair(i think it's called) attempts to fix whatever is keeping Windows from starting, but it can't seem to.

I suppose the best thing is to just buy a new copy of Vista(they got them for 89 bucks at Tiger) but this brings up my second problem:

My DVD RW isn't working. It seems as if it's showing up in my bios, but I can't be certain. However when I click "eject" a green lights flashes 3 or 4 times, then nothing. If my DVD isn't functioning, I don't want to waste my money on a new copy of Vista and then not be able to install it. Of course, I would really love to just keep my current copy of Vista if at all possible.

I'm sorry for the length of this post, but I'm trying to be as detailed as possible so that someone may be able to help me.

While you may be able to do a repair install of vista, it will still leave residual hardware in device manager that could cause problems. Since this was a OEM version you are stuck buying another oem version from tiger direct. Personally i would test the DVD drive in another computer to see if the drive is bad. Or find a geek friend that will loan you a working DVD drive so you can install vista.

SRX660