Windows could not start, hard disk config error

Okay, so basically my main HDD thinks windows XP is installed on it now. (Originally windows 7)

I put a setup of Windows XP on a USB flash drive to install on my 2nd HDD (to run black ops) and after installing XP on that 2nd HDD, I get an error on my main HDD:Windows could not start because of a computer hard disk configuration error (give or a take a few words).

Its that simple, but how do I fix it? I booted the main HDD with F8 and the advanced options for Windows XP come up, so I don't have access to "repair windows".

Right now I'm on the 2nd HDD running Windows XP (black ops works much better btw) The main HDD windows 7 partition is active and everything, just think it has Windows XP "installed" on it.

The only way I know how to fix it is install Windows 7 from VD in windows XP on the same active partition. pain in the ***

WHY DIDN'T I UNPLUG MY MAIN HDD, ****

the problem is in how windows works with the boot sector of your HD.

when you install windows xp, it marks the boot sector of ALL of the drives, so that only the windows XP drive is a valid "boot drive". So when you tell the pc in the bios to load the windows 7 drive as your boot drive, it will return "invalid system disk/HD configuration error" or something silly like that.

The error is probably compounded by the fact you're probably not using NTSF/FAT32 formatting on the windows 7 disk, which means windows XP can't even read the drive, so even if you made a "multi-OS" boot setup, since it's in a windows XP "shell" it won't be able to read that "option" so to speak.

Okay so I used the repair disc and a few commands to get my main HDD booting windows 7 again and my 2nd HDD boots windows 7 home, and windows XP (from usb).

But after all this, moving around Windows looks really weird now and its not dynamic, also my windows partition says "Windows 7 ultimate (recovered).

Can you help me with this? (games work fine. excluding black ops on Win7 )

see how its just an empty box until I drop it?

Click to expand...

Possibly, the Microsoft bootloader is pointing to a Windows XP installation on the wrong drive.

The error message you have is a Microsoft equivalent to a GRUB error.

Edit the Environment Variables.

Point everything that looks @ C:\ to the location of the copy of windows you want to boot into.

Okay?