You will need to use the original installation disc and rebuild the boot files.

We already discussed that the boot record was on the XP partition. What made you think that a back up program would copy files from another drive or partition.?

Are all the programs and apps such a big deal that you can't just start over.? You have all ready wasted a lot of time on trying things that don't work, why not do something that you know will work.

You have 2 drives. repartition the data drive into two partitions and install the bacup copy of vista to it...you will not be able to pull files from the back up disc untill they are re-installed onto the drive.... (you can do that at any time)

Take the drive that you want vista installed to and just wipe it and all the partitions and re-install a clean installation of vista to it. Then reinstall the programs and do the updates and get the operating system the way you want it. Now just transfer the data from the back-up copy to the new system and when done wipe the partition that the back-up was on and re-use it for either aditional storage or for back up storage.

NOTE********** you can not transfer programs and applications from one operating system to another...you can take the saved files folders from the applications and swappthem ot import them into the same programs that you have re-installed on the new system.

For future references...the next time you wish to use dual booting use a third party boot manager like BootIt NG (pay for it) or GAG (free) both work almost exactly alike.