Similar Problem

I also had the error of windows xp not recognizing my partition with a sata drive. I tried using both a formatted and unformatting partition as well as creating the partition using the vista program and creating it through the dos prompt as well with no luck. The odd thing to me is that xp thinks that my drive is only 131gb (someone else mentioned this as well) when it is actually 300. My system is custom built with an asus P5N-sli motherboard.

Well I finally got so frustrated that I just wiped my hd and installed xp first. I am still in the process of updating xp fully before I install vista and had a question concerning software and games. Say I install office while using the vista partition but I want to use office as well when using the xp one. Are there any rules you must follow? I know some programs can be copied from one computer to another and run fine without any formal installation, while others will fail unless they went through the installation process. I would like to only have to have 1 installation of office if possible installed on either a separate partion or drive. I appreciate any help with this matter.