Windows 7: windows 7 and xp dual boot problems

I have windows 7 64bit pre-installed and want to have a dual boot system with xp. I have read the tutorials, followed the instructions to shrink space in the C and now i have the unallocated space, but how do i rename the space when i don't have that option in right clicking. do i create new simple volume so it appears in the list of drives above? I think this is where i am getting confused. also how do i know if my cd/dvd drive will boot first? I have gone into my system setup and made sure (I think)that my cd/dvd drive boots first. but nothing happens. how do i know i have the dvd drive to boot first? I have the usb cdrom to boot first. is that correct?
thanks for any help

Yes,create a new simple volume.
No,it should be just CD-ROM,not USB CD ROM
Please download Partition Wizard as i know it best
Free Download Partition Wizard
Get the home edition and the boot disc,kepp the boot disc for later,comes in handy.

Open PW
Click on the Unallocated Space that you made by Shrinking the partition.
Right Click and click Create>make it Primary and NTFS
Once its done,right click again and make Active.
Now your partition is created.

Then go to your BIOS and go to the Boot Order
Put CD-ROM as 1 and Hard drive as 2

Any more questions just ask

Boot from CD - How to Boot your Computer from a Bootable CD or DVD - Boot to CD

Use Method Two here: Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

This is the tool you'll use to add XP to Dual Boot after install: http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=642

minotaur,
i tried your suggestion, and it worked up to a certain point. i downloaded partition wizard and when i went to create it was greyed out so i skipped that part and went to mark it active and primary. when i restart windows boots it never gives me the option of which drive i want to install xp on. it just starts with windows setup and then stops with an error message stop 0x0000007b. then when i powered back on it tells me there is no boot manager so i had to reinstall from my recovery disks. what is going on.

The error message means that XP installer needs the more modern HD controller for your mobo, inserted at the F6 prompt in the beginning when it is loading drivers. However, it requires a floppy drive (XP=old) so if you don't have one, the driver needs to be slipstreamed in.

There is a possibility the SATA controller can be set to run in another mode in BIOS setup so that XP will have it's driver.

You needed to mark Windows 7 active again to start it back up. We could have helped you do that using Partition Wizard bootable CD, or Diskpart commands from Windows 7 DVD. I hope you had your files backed up.

Can you post back a screenshot of your full Disk Management drive map so we can see where you are?

Use Snipping Tool in Start menu, attach file using paper clip in reply box.

I was actually going to throw out an old IDE floppy drive i had lying around a few months ago but decided to keep it a while longer until XP is completely abolished

I must read up on the diskpart commands,if the user doesnt have PW boot disc and Start up repair fails i usally have to rely on other users.

It was greyed out becasue the partition was already made (formated),i cannot think of another wa of making it unable to create a new volume.

And he wants to have unallocated space when booting the XP CD to install, creating New partition and formatting from the CD as XP's partition table is slightly different.

To mark a partition active/inactive using Diskpart Commands, run from the Windows 7 DVD Repair console Command Line:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (# is Windows 7 HD)
LIST PARTITION
SELECT PARTITION # (# is Windows 7)
ACTIVE
EXIT

Can also be used to mark a partition Inactive

here is a capture from partition wizard. i haven't applied the settings yet just to make sure it is done correctly. thanks for all your help

The XP partition does not need to be active. Only one partition should be active, and it may be the Win 7 partition since it is showing as system, although it is normally the System Reserved partition.

Actually the readout does not make sense. Or maybe this readout uses different status names from Windows.

--------------------------
I installed Partition Wizard so I could check the status names:
"System" in Windows 7 = "Active & boot" in PW
"Boot" in Win 7 = "System" in PW

If this is correct, it appears your System Reserved partition needs to indicate "Active & boot" but does not appear to be active, which it needs to be to boot.

Boot Partition Wizard bootable CD to rightclick XP partition>Modify>Set Inactive, OK. Now rightclick Windows 7 partition>Modify>Set to Active, OK, Apply.

Now boot into Windows 7 DVD, select Repair on second screen, click through to Recovery tools to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times to start Windows 7.

If this fails, reboot into Partition Wizard, right click Windows 7 partition, Modify>Set Inactive, then right click System Reserved partition to Modify>Set Active, apply all steps.

Now boot back into Windows 7 DVD to run Startup Repair 3 times to start Windows 7.

Once Windows 7 starts, use PW to delete the formatting for XP, boot XP CD and create a new partiiton there to format before install.