These are just guesses, but they have worked for me in the past. XP may be different than Windows 7, but the meat and potatoes should be similar. I would just have the one copied drive installed during this. Then, go into BIOS and have the CD drive as the first boot device. Now have you Windows CD installed (hopefully you have one), and reboot. Select 'R' for repair, and type in 'fixboot' at the prompt. Maybe try 'fixmbr' as well. It's worth a shot.
I have trouble with Acronis True Image all the time, but I am 'almost' computer illiterate. I just know enough to be a threat to anyone who is foolish enough to let me 'fix' their computer. Having said that, I haven't f*cked anything beyond hope. Yet. Knock wood. When the disk is cloned, it should start, and I verify it is the cloned disk by size, but if you are cloning similar sizes this is tricky to know, and maybe part of the problem. Then I go into add/remove hardware and remove the original disk. You should get that little bubble in the lower right hand corner that says 'New Hardware Found' and 'Your new hardware in installed and ready to use'. I haven't done this a lot (maybe a half-dozen times), but so far, so good. Well, after a few hair pulling episodes.