Disc Boot Error

System Info:
Windows 7 Enterprise 32-bit
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X@ Dual Core Processor 4200+ 2.20GHz
RAM: 2 GB

I am currently getting a weird error during my bootup. Anytime I boot my system up I get the error:

Disc Read Error
Press [Ctrl] [Alt] [Delete] to restart

UNLESS I have my windows XP install disc in the disc drive. With this disc in the drive it give me the option to press any key to boot from CD. I dont press any key and it boots up into my OS with no problems.

More about my setup.
I originally just had Vista 32-bit installed on an IDE drive designated at the C: drive. I installed a new Sata drive and was going to install XP on it. I had put my XP install disc in the drive but then remembered I got a free Win7 Install download from school (im a college student). I downloaded the install and ran it from Vista. I installed a clean install of windows 7 on the Sata drive designate as the E: drive. The whole time I installed it my XP disc was in the drive. There were no problems during the install.

If I disconnect all drives except for the Sata drive with Win7 on it I get the error messege:

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

Im wondering if there is no boot record on my E: drive and the boot record on my C: drive is corrupted somehow? What makes the windows XP install disc special that it allows me to boot into either Vista or Win7? I have never installed XP on this system.

Check in the BIOS and make sure that the Windows 7 hard drive is listed first in boot priority.

Ive done that, and it still gives the disc boot error.

The only boot order that allows me to boot into my OS is if the optical drive is first, AND if the windows XP disc is in the drive. Bear in mind, I do not boot from the disc. It has to detect the disc then it will boot into my HD OS without the disc read error.

Since I installed windows 7 from a downloaded .exe from school I dont have a windows 7 repair option. :/

I'm not going to get into the boot repair aspect of this, because I never use an installation that creates a boot menu, so that I will leave to someone else. However, for future reference, I would highly recommend that when installing multiple OSs, if you have a spare drive for the new OS, as you did for this, that you disconnect the old drive and install the new OS on the new drive, then reconnect the old drive and OS afterward. This will eliminate the boot menu, and all problems associated with it...like now. With this design, instead of using a boot menu created by the OS, you use F8, F1 or ESC as designed on the first screen of your BIOS run, to choose a hard drive to boot to, rather than an OS.

I am with you on that one seekermeister, and I would have completely pulled the old drive out. But my windows 7 install is an .exe file and not a boot disc. :/

I believe that you could have burned an installation disc with that .exe. Not exactly sure how, since it has been quite a while since I did so.

Burning the disc off now. Just run the startup repair? Any special or extra steps I should know?