Computer sits at blinking cursor after post unless USB is plugged in

[tgp1994]

Yup, that's about it. Ever since I tried removing a partition with Windows 7 on it and doing a fix MBR and Boot, (because Windows 7 had overwritten my windows XP boot sector,) it seems to have messed up my computer. So for you information, I have my main hard drive, set to Boot device 1, supposedly with the correct files on it, and should be booting. It has only one partition with Windows XP Home SP3. The other hard drive is just a data hard drive. I downloaded three critical files off of a computer boot site, put them on that flash drive, then my computer boots up fine. But when I leave the flash drive unplugged, my system will just sit at a screen after the POST with a blinking cursor. So can anyone think of what may be wrong with the hard drive?

(Remember, the operating system inside of it working fine. There's something wrong with the boot process, though.)

~TGP1994

[JJ 3000]

Do you have your XP CD?

[tgp1994]

Yes, and I already tried a repair installation, if that's what you're getting to.

[patio]

BCEdit...

[tgp1994]

It has only one partition with Windows XP Home SP3.

BCDEdit is the primary tool for editing the boot configuration of Windows Vista and later versions of Windows.

... and Vista only. I would download BCDEdit if it worked for XP, too.

Any more suggestions?

[patio]

The issue was caused by Win 7...BCEdit is for Vista and Win 7...

[tgp1994]

But, I don't have Vista or windows 7. (Not anymore at least.)

[xcharge50]

Try to go on the recovery console from you xp cd an type fixmbr (not sure if it will work but you have nothing to lose) also  type help to have a list of all command. Maybe 1 of them will fix it.

[patio]

But, I don't have Vista or windows 7. (Not anymore at least.)

Yup, that's about it. Ever since I tried removing a partition with Windows 7

This says at one point you did...
Since Vista AND win 7 uses this this is what has fudged your XP boot files...
Re-visit the link provided.

[tgp1994]

So you're saying I reinstall Windows 7 and try the fix boot thing?

I'm a little confused here, cause I guess my ultimate goal is to remove windows 7 completely and run it in a virtual machine. So i reinstall it on a new partition, run that command, windows works fine, then what? Won't it still mess my machine up when I remove the partition again?

[patio]

No.
I'm suggesting you use BCEdit to remove any remnants of Win7 to see if XP will boot properly...

[tgp1994]

Ok, I'm not really sure where the confusion here is. Windows 7 is GONE. I don't have Vista, either. I only have windows XP.
BCEdit is ONLY on windows Vista and up. So how am I supposed to use BCEdit when I don't have it?

Now, I can reinstall Windows 7 if I absolutely have to, but that kind of defeats the purpose.

[patio]

Well you could try using the RC to fix this...
Boot to the XP CD.
At the first screen press R to enter the Recovery Console.
After it finishes loading at the prompt type fixboot and hit Enter.
Remove the CD and re-boot..

If this does not work repeat the above except at the prompt type fixmbr and hit Enter.
Again remove the CD and re-boot.

[tgp1994]

Unfortunately, those didn't work. I've got to wonder, when I was loading up the CD, it mentioned detecting two devices on exactly same stuff... bus 0, stuff like that, all on a 0. Also, and this may be important as to my failure, while I was inserting the new partition, I noticed this very small partition (about 5MB or so) at the very beginning of my disk. I seem to remember it being unallocated, so I combined it into the main partition. So maybe it has something to do with the partitions.

And again, thank you very much.

[patio]

Sounds like it's time to wipe partitions, format and do a clean install...