HELP...Win 7 boot problem

I have a dual-OS system with one SATA drive running XP and the other running Win 7. I'm no longer using XP and want to install Win 8 on it, but every time I try it fails. I decided to just format the drive and start fresh, but when I attempt to format I received the following...




I unpluged the hard drive with XP and attempted to boot off the Win 7 hard drive, and I received this error: "No IDE Master H.D.D. Detected! Press F1 to resume."

Apparently my system is initially booting off XP, then passing control to the Win 7 drive. I set the BIOS to boot from the DVD-ROM, loaded Win 7 installation disk and choose to do a repair (hoping it would notice that I have no MBR or boot loader and create them for me).

The repair disc completes, and the diagnostic reads "root cause found the partition table does not have a valid system partition" and claims its now fixed. I reconnect XP drive and set BIOS to boot from Win 7.
I go into Disc Management, and I am STILL unable to format XP drive. When I disconnect XP drive again I get the same "IDE Master" error as before...PC will NOT boot off Win 7.

Also, I dont know if this has anything to do with it...but I can ONLY get into XP in Safe Mode...otherwise I get a Stop Error BSOD when I chose it as my OS.

SO IF THE INSTALLATION DISC DOESN'T REPAIR THE PROBLEM...what are my options to get Win 7 drive to boot independently so I may format the XP drive?


Any assistance is GREATLY appreciated.



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