[Developer]

Hello all, let me try to keep this detail oriented: I attempted to install a new copy of Windows onto my machine, over my old copy of Windows XP, using a "workaround" way that avoided having to repartition my drive... It called for me to...

Hello all, let me try to keep this detail oriented:

I attempted to install a new copy of Windows onto my machine, over my old copy of Windows XP, using a "workaround" way that avoided having to repartition my drive... It called for me to basically drag only the boot files into the C: drive, have a copy of the rest of the new Windows OS files on a backup hard drive, restart the computer, and then choose the "Repair my Computer" option when the new OS setup appeared.

I did so, cleared the partition as directed using the command prompt option within the setup (yes, I did backup any of my important personal files before doing this), and then it called for me to run the setup off of my backup hard drive. Problem was, it wasn't detected, as I had backed it up onto my USB hard drive and it could not locate the files.

Thinking I could simply change this option within the BIOS, I restarted, went to change the boot sequence, only to find four choices: Hard drive, network, CD/DVD and one other (not USB). Seeing as there was no option for USB, I restarted again, only to find myself stuck in the bootMGR loop. I attempted to load all of the new OS setup files onto a DVD and boot from that, but I still get the BootMGR error, and now I have no idea what to do...

PLEASE help or point to any relevant solutions if possible, I need to get the system back up and running for travel and I do not know my options for fixing this problem... Is there any way to do it BESIDES the "Vista recovery" option I have been seeing, since I used to have Windows XP on that machine? Also, would this be a good opportunity to load 2 operating systems if I wanted, since I would be able to create the partitions?

Thank you in advance.