Can I install XP on a secondary drive?

Dear William,

Great tutorial and thanks for providing this great resource! I spent the last 2 hours reading most of the posts to see if I could find an answer to my problem. Unfortunately I'm encountering some issues. I have a new Dell XPS420 computer, Quad-core 2.66GHz 1333FSB with 12MB cache, 500GB SATA hard drive and 4GB RAM. The new computer came installed with Vista and has been pre-partitioned by Dell as follows:

Disk 0 has 3 primary partitions, one with 55MB (no drive letter or label), C: (Vista OS) and D: (called "Recovery") but the D: partition actually precedes the C: partition - so I don't think I can delete it and merge it with the C: partition. Also, I think this partition is used by Vista and probably can't be deleted.

PLAN A
I used Shrink to create a 4th partition which I labeled N: but it created a logical drive and not a primary drive. Is there any way that I can create a 4th primary drive where I can install XP?

PLAN B
If not, I have an alternate solution. I have a secondary Seagate 200GB SATA hard drive from my old computer which I can install into the new computer. It currently has nothing on it.

Could I partition Hard Drive #2 and install XP on that drive's primary partition and dual boot from 2 physical hard drives instead? (This would be ideal as I could just re-format this hard drive and use it for something else when I eventually migrate permanently to Vista)

If PLAN B is a viable solution, can I install XP on it from my OLD machine and then transfer the hard drive over to my new machine or will that screw things up with Vista? I realize I still have to install all the drivers for the new machine's hardware onto Hard Drive #2. I could burn them onto a CD prior to installing XP.

What's the best/easiest solution here? Plan A or Plan B? And if Plan B, which would be best way to install XP for dual-boot?

I downloaded EasyBCD. Depending on how I solve my initial dilemma of where to install XP, at what point in the installation process do I introduce EasyBCD?

I have both the XP Reinstallation CD & the Vista reinstallation DVD that came with my computers. I'm assuming they are full installation disks. (The XP CD was for my old Dell, so I'll probably have to get an authorization code from MS to re-install it on my new machine).

However, when I tried to install XP from the boot/installation disk in the CD-drive of my NEW Dell computer, I got the Blue Screen of Death that hung at "Setup Is Starting Windows" and never got past that. Got an error message and had to shut down and reboot. I don't think it ever got far enough to know that it didn't have a primary partition to install it to. So how do I get past this?

I'm not OS-savvy and appreciate any help you can offer!