help for dual boot (7+XP) - can't shrink volume

[indokyne]

Hey all,
Tryin to get a dual-boot setup going.

Currently using Windows 7 32-bit and want to add XP dual boot.

Per instructions, first step is to go to Disk Management in 7 and shrink the C: volume but the amount of space available to shrink is only 1047 MB. I have over 22GB of free space.

Now I read that " virtual memory page file, System Protection maximum storage space size, and hibernation files" can restrict the amount of space available but now, I'm not quite sure how to safely free up the space to create the partition for XP.

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance...

 

[Bigpapa42]

I'm running into a similar problem. I have Win7 installed on a 640 GB drive. The intent was to use Win7 to partition it into 6 equal drives, leaving the OS with over 100 GB of space .But it won't let me shrink the boot drive beyond 50%. So Win7 has 300 GB and I split the other 300 GB down into a few partitions. Any way around this?

 

[voodoochildbc]

Use a 3rd party tool, e.g. gparted to re-size the partitions.

For the OP - At the very least, I think you should have at least 12-15 GB left over for windows 7. These days, I would argue that still might not be enough.