To get back the capacity to boot to windows 7, after you've reinstalled XP, you'll need to boot from the Windows 7 install disk and perform a 'Startup Repair'. I did eventually install all the supplied drivers with my motherboard, but there were zero problems on the initial bootup. Rather than copying an Intel 圆4 iastor.sys driver to C:Windows, it had copied a iastor7.sys x86 driver when Fix-hdc.cmd was run. I completed the new build, fired up the upgraded motherboard and, happily, Windows was working perfectly. I used Hiren’s Boot CD method for a 64 bit Win XP when I changed the motherboard but it didn’t work when the PC rebooted and the BSOD appeared. most likely outcome for XP is that it'll refuse to even boot up! If you need to reinstall XP again that'll render your Windows 7 install unbootable, because the XP install will have changed the boot loader. All was working - Windows 10 reported that it was activated. Your Windows XP install won't be happy at it afterwards though. If you have a TPM chip on the motherboard and it’s enabled in the bios, then the resulting screen will show you if you have TPM. If you're not happy with the results you can always start over with a clean install later on. Start by clicking in the Windows search box and typing in tpm.msc. Some people will take the 'cautious' approach and advise you to clean install again anyway. You'll almost certainly need to reactivate afterwards. They'll almost certainly churn away locating and installing suitable device drivers for your new hardware, with no ill-effects other than the install deactivating. Says who? Stjepan, both Windows Vista and Windows 7 handle a motherboard transplant quite well. Yes you must reinstall Windows 7 when you change the hardware out.