Vista should be able to format the other drive no problem. It is not tied to the OS on the drive, and does not care that the files are Windows XP related.
Also the installation paths will of course be different. Windows requires it's installation drive to be known as C:\ thus each OS will say it's drive is C and others are D, E, etc.
How many drives are in this computer? If the 500GB is not staying in it, is it important to erase it now? simply install the new drive and put XP on it as you did before.
Also it is usually safer to install all OS on the same drive, but separate partitions, but this is still your choice.
Are the drives SATA or IDE? This makes a difference in whether the OS CDs can find all drives.
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