More problems

Ok, so after giving up on installing XP on Vista I went about trying to install XP first, and then Vista as I've read from different sources that it just works easier that way.

So I install XP, run through some updates, and install some drivers and notice that the first time I booted without the disk in the drive I got a "NTLDR is missing" error. I sort of ignored this error since it would boot fine with the CD in and thought that maybe when I installed Vista it would fix it.

Well I install Vista and get the same "NTLDR is missing" error. I've run repair from both CD's. I've used fixMBR, and fixBOOT. I've used /copy to copy a new ntldr and ntdetect.com file. In the process I've learned way more about how a computer boots up than I've ever wanted to know. I rewrote my boot.ini file in XP only to find that it was a moot point since Vista takes over with Windows Boot Manager after the ntldr error is avoided by having the CD in. I've used bcdedit to both screw up and then fix the xp bootable option (that was fun).

Long story short, everything works perfectly so long as either my Vista or XP CD is in when I start up. Otherwise I get the NTLDR error. I've read every help guild I could find and either I'm doing something wrong or they didn't work. I'm thinking it could be a partition error. I have 3 partitions: the first is my XP partition, second is my Vista partition, and third is just file storage. My XP and Vista partition are primary partitions and the 3rd one is a logical partition. Since NTLDR doesn't exist in Vista whatever is causing the error I'm pretty sure is on the XP side, but as I've said, I've been unable to isolate it. I appreciate any help you could offer.