when i created my hdd partitions i made an extra one for windows 7

50gb for xp, 50gb for win 7 and then the rest (on a 500gb drive)

and also another 500gb drive (both sata)

i have xp sp3 32 bit installed and running for ages everything working fine

i then installed windows 7 64 bit onto the free partition and it worked when it reset itself into win 7 but once it had finished installing everything and i rebooted it, it wouldnt display the boot menu and just booted into xp

so i put win 7 disc in and went to install it again and when the option came up to install to partition

(i noticed my xp partiton was listed as system but also my 2nd drive was listed as a (system) drive yet it is only used for storage??)

so i continued on and deleted the win 7 partition re created it then formatted and got an error halfway through copying files

i then disconnected my 2nd drive and loaded win 7

it come to the install to partition so i deleted the win7 partition and recreated then formatted it and installed it

now when it boots up it works exactly how its meant to but as soon as i connect my other hard drive back in it wont even boot

i think it has something to do with what i noticed earlier as the 2nd hdd being a system drive

i have plugged it into an external usb drive loaded it in win xp disc manager and its just listed as healthy not system

the 2nd drive still works fine when plugged into the usb enclosure so im thing theres a boot menu or soemthing on that drive how do i delete it?

any ideas??

Edited August 15, 201016 yr by b-man

Put all of your drives in and connect them as you want them. Boot into XP and check the other drives/partitions and make sure there are no remnants of Win7 anywhere - format that drive so that does not have to be done by the Win7 installer. Label the drives/paritions as, for example: (C:)XP Pro; (D:)Win7, etc - just to provide a reference.

Boot from the Win7 DVD and select the appropriate drive/partition for installation and try again. Does the install routine 'see' the drives ar you labelled them? Does the installation finish? Do you now have a boot menu?

Google EasyBCD and install it in XP and Win7 and use it to verify/change the boot menu. (Assuming one is there.)

i couldnt plug all drives in cos then i couldnt boot

thats what i had started with and its when it didnt work

i deleted some boot files from that other drive and now all works sweet dunno how or why they got on there

who have deleted my comments?

Were those comments actually pertinant to the thread?

who have deleted my comments?

I took your posts out and made a new topic with them, so not to confuse your specific issues with the OPs.