Help - Installing XP on HDD with three partitions

Ok,

I searched all over the forums and could not find much related to this... (sorry if this is a repost)

Here is what I would like to do,

I just purchased a new 15" Santa Rosa 2.2GHz 120GB MBP and would like to install XP to run my games on (would prefer not to use vista),

I would ideally like to end up with three partitions,
One for OS X
------52GB-------
One for XP (NTFS)
------30GB-------
and finally one for data (FAT32) -compatible with OS X and XP
------29GB-------
(I like to keep my data, documents, pictures, etc. on a separate partition for various reasons)

how would you suggest doing this

what I was thinking of was to use boot camp to make a partition for windows and then use my OS X disk to split my "Macintosh HD" partition (leaving the boot camp one alone) into two partitions (one for OS X and another for data) and then reinstalling OS X and finally installing XP

sorry if this sounds a little confusing, but do you think this would work

any help/suggestions/links would be greatly appreciated

Thanks,

Just run your install disk go to utilities/disk utilities/ create your partitions there. I would have the mac partiton first and then the Windows and last your fat32 partition. You dont need bootcamp to do this, you will just need the bootcamp cd to install the drivers on the Windows side.

Hey Thanks,

This helps a lot,

Just one more quick question,
what would I format the XP partition as, (MS-DOS?)
will anything just work since it will be reformatted anyway when I install XP?

Thanks again

Do you really want to destroy the uncluttered HD and fill it with filthy XP?

Good luck!

at least I'm not installing vista

ok, I tried what snoop said and I am having some problems,
the partitioning went fine and the OS X install went fine,
the problem came when installing XP
I chose to format the partition for it as NTFS full not quick
formatted fine "installed files" fine,
the problem came when it was time to reboot,
i held alt option to boot into windows to complete the installation and a black screen came up that said Disk error, press any key to reboot,
and the computer froze
I went back into OS X to see what it "installed"
There was a folder in my XP partition called Windows with a bunch of stuff in it, OK
but when I looked in my Data partition FAT32, there were for files that the setup put in it
boot.ini
bootsect.dos
NTDETECT.COM
ntldr
does anyone know what went wrong or how to do what I want to do

Thanks for any comments

Here's what I'd do;

Use the install disk / disk utility to create two partitions - one for OS X and one in FAT32. Intsall OS X.

Next, install and run Boot Camp and use it to partition the OS X drive in two (one will now be OS X and one for Windows). During Windows install choose NTFS.

Hey presto! OS X partition, Win XP NTFS partition and FAT32 storage partition!

Hope this helps!

have you tested this to see if it works,
because,
I am pretty sure bootcamp will not open unless unless the hdd is one os x partition
i have an idea
i'm installing windows normally via bootcamp then i am going to use ipartition to resize my os x partition and make room for a fat32 partition

http://refit.sourceforge.net/tripleboot/

This site will be helpful. I don't know the reason but it said we need to install XP on last partition. I succeeded to do what you want to on my MacBook Pro.

PS
Don't use Firefox to see this site. Use Safari or IE. Firefox comment out some of the important area.