Too many partitions to install XP

So I followed a few different tutorials on dual-booting XP with Vista, and got a slipstreamed XP SP3 CD with the SATA driver. Now when I boot off the XP CD, and try to choose the partition to install (there is already an unallocated space I created after the main Vista partition), the installer tells me there are too many partitions and can't install.

So far there are the standard partitions from Dell, with an extra created by Acronis SafeZone, plus the unallocated space after the Vista partition.

And I don't want to reformat the hard drive yet. Want to see if XP runs ok first.

What to do?

 

How many partitions total, and what sort of partitions are they (i.e., are they primary or extended partitions)?

 

think its a max of 4 (bootable) partitions per drive....
1- Vista
2- recovery
3- mediadirect
4- ?

 

It's a maximum of 4 primary partitions, or three primary partitions and one extended partition (the difference being that an extended partition can be further chopped up into up to 23 logical partitions - that being the total number of drive letters available after the three that are allocated to the primary partitions). However, I believe that you're correct with respect to bootable partitions since I believe that those must be primary partitions.

 

Is the Recovery partition bootable? Or is it just storage for the backup files? Do I even need to keep it since I have the Dell CDs?

I think all those listed by paper_wastage are primary partitions, right?

So without wiping Vista off the hard drive, is there a way to install XP?

 

Ok, I used GParted to delete the last extended partition and merged all unallocated space. Now XP is installing in this new partition.