Windows 7: Windows 7 reads a Windows XP drive, then XP won't boot?

I've been using my laptop with Windows 7 with an USB to SATA adapter to read files from an XP hard drive. When I put the drive back in the XP tower, XP will not boot anymore and gives me a 7B error. Does Windows 7 alter the files on the XP drive when it reads it? Just curious if anyone else has encountered this....

You mean it's a sata disk and converted to usb and plugged in in usb port of Windows 7 machine?

Is boot from usb enabled in laptop (maybe it did boot or tried to boot ) from it.
Did you "safe remove hardware"?

XP STOP 0X0000007B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE – BSOD | Windows XP & Windows 7

A STOP 0X0000007B error means that Windows XP lost access to the system or boot volume during startup. STOP 0X0000007B is often caused by one of the following:

• Hardware problems
  • e.g. A failed boot device =>disk is still visible and working in Windows 7?
• Corrupted or incompatible storage drivers
  • SCSI, RAID, UDMA IDE, SATA
• File system problems (corruption)=>disk is still visible and working in Windows 7?
• A virus=>Windows 7 did put virus on it... unlikely
• Out-dated BIOS=>you didn't update BIOS?

Did you change something in xp desktop's BIOS? Why did you connect disk to Windows 7 anyway? I mean was disk working fine prior to that action?

Make sure XP HD is set first to boot in BIOS setup. Unplug any other HD's and peripherals.

If this fails, boot into XP CD Repair Command Line, type bootrec /fixboot then Enter, followed by bootrec /fixmbr and Enter. See if this repairs the boot.

If not you may need to run an XP Repair Install

Hi greg,

bootrec isn't on XP CD Recovery Console. Commands are:

fixmbr
fixboot

Keep doing the good work

Thanks for the heads up. XP is fading for me and it may be 5-7 years since I repaired the MBR in it.